Stephanie Valgos and her family and friends are hard at work building the creepiest house in the neighborhood. Valgos’ haunted house is a community effort and is open to the public for free.

“This is something that brings the whole neighborhood together. The kids all like to help us decorate,” Valgos said.

Valgos came up with her haunted house idea five years ago when she noticed that a few neighbor kids were hanging out in her front yard doing their homework in her graveyard display. She already went all out for Christmas with decorations, and she decided to amp up her Halloween decorations as well. She has Halloween lights, dry ice fog, a full graveyard and any creepy crawly the imagination can conjure. This year she also has a haunted tent.

“When you do something like this you want everyone else to come out and enjoy your passion,” Valgos said.

The haunted house is open and free to public, and Valgos also offers cotton candy as a treat for the kids. She said decorating the haunted house is a lot of hard work. She and her volunteers spend at least 60 hours hanging lights, spray painting, installing decorations and getting ready for Halloween. She used to do both Halloween and Christmas decorations in the same year, but she is considering alternating that now.

“I was spending four months decorating, cleaning up, decorating and then cleaning again. I really like doing it but I think I will try just one holiday a year and see how that works,” she said.

The haunted house is located at 4215 Merchant Lane. They will be open on Sunday starting around 6 p.m. and on Monday evening for trick-or-treaters.

To contact Andrea Goodwin, e-mail agoodwin@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2003.