WHEN engineer Daniel Buckingham wanted to turn his home into Southampton’s most haunted house he decided to do it in spectacular style – by putting it up in lights.
As darkness falls tonight Daniel’s home will light up the night sky with an array of lights of a ghoulish kind.
After spending nearly £4,000 the father-of-two will be putting on a spectacular show – all in aid of Cedar School in Lordshill, which his sixyear- old niece attends.
The 36-year-old’s creepy creation will be on display outside his home in Margam Avenue, Sholing, with Hallowe’en-themed songs to accompany the free show.
A variety of colours and shapes such as pumpkin faces, ghosts and other frightful fiends will shine for an hour from 7pm with a firework show afterwards.
Daniel said he has been spending the last three days putting up more than 7,000 lights to decorate the front of his house in aid of his niece Libby, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
That includes 2,100 triple-coloured lights known as RGBs, 2,000 LED lights, 100 metres of rope lights, which is the equivalent of 3,000 bulbs, 10 spot lights and three strobe lights.
And despite his crazy plans the marine engineer, who works for Sealine, has had the support of his family – wife Carolyn and teenage daughters Bobby and Amy – and his neighbours, too.
Daniel said: “My wife’s supported me all the way. She thought it was a mad idea at first but once I started working on it she was right behind me. The neighbours on either side have helped me with advice about how to put them up and even helped me.”
He hopes to be able to use the evening to showcase the technology for future fundraising events.
Friends and family of Libby and her mother Zoe will be going around collecting cash in buckets and informing people about the cause.
“We have raised money in the past for a wheelchair for Libby but now we are doing it for the school she goes to,”
he said.
Neighbour Sophie O’Donnell, a mum of two, said: “It’s brilliant. It’s all great fun and it’s for charity.”
Grant Baker, 29, was driving past and decided he had to pull over to get a better look.
The marine engineer, from Chapel Road, West End, said: “I have never seen anything like this before in my life. It’s incredible.”
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