COURTENAY, B.C. – A love for Halloween and household critters drove Shane Bone to haunt his house this week.
The Courtenay resident is the architect behind The House on Fitzgerald, which is open Monday, Oct. 29 and Tuesday, Oct. 30 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and on Halloween Wednesday (Oct. 31) from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Tickets to enter the House at 2065 Fitzgerald Avenue are $2 per person, and $5 per family, with partial proceeds going to the SPCA.
Bone and his family, including his wife Amy Powell and their three kids, hope the House on Fitzgerald will be everyone’s favourite haunt for years to come.
“(This is the) first year,” Bone said, as he busily prepped the house for visitors late Monday afternoon. “We were doing decorations and stuff so we just kept buying more and more decorations, and my wife really enjoys Halloween so I thought, what the heck, let’s just do a haunted house.”
Photo by Troy Landreville/98.9 The Goat/Vista Radio
There is no theme, per se. Bone said the goal is to “find the scariest things we can find and hope to scare some people.”
Bone wasn’t sure of the square footage of the display but noted that it has taken up the entire front yard and driveway. He said characters include “an electrified guy who sits in a chair, a witch, a raising from the dead guy… we’ve got lots of stuff.”
“I like Halloween,” Bone added. “I think it’s fun. I think it’s great. I like having the kids over and getting the candy. I like seeing how their eyes light up when they see the decorations.”
Drumming up scares isn’t the only motivation. The family chose to help the SPCA because of what it does to help stray and unwanted animals in the community.
And creatures of the two-legged variety aren’t the only habitants of the house.
Powell said, “I choose the SPCA because they do so much for the animals in our community as well as other communities. And because our family loves animals.”
“We’ve got three dogs, we’ve got a guinea pig, we’ve got fish, we’ve got a hamster, we’ve got lizards, we’ve got everything,” Bone added.
“So we just thought the SPCA would be the best to go for.”
