Yard Plotted to scale, promise

Cryptid Crossing · Deep Narrow

Cryptid Crossing layout for a Deep Narrow

Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street.

your deep narrow, 42′ × 30′ 6 of 10 spots filled
To-scale site plan for a Deep NarrowA to-scale overhead site plan of a deep narrow, 42 feet of street frontage by 95 feet deep, with the house set back 55 feet from the front sidewalk. The street runs along the top of the drawing. 6 of 10 marked positions are filled. Filled: the star; sidekick, left; sidekick, right; the approach lights; roofline and porch; the halfway moment. Left empty: under the porch roof, along the eaves, porch posts and rail, the front door. STREETDRIVEHOUSE42'ABmax 7'Cmax 7'DEFPmax 8'TRWmax 6.7'

Drawn to scale. Everything is measured in feet from the front sidewalk, and your front door is 80″ tall if you need something to check against.

this theme on this shape

Cryptid Crossing fills 5 of this shape's 10 marked spots for free, and 7 of them once every budget is unlocked.

With everything unlocked, three spots stay empty because this theme has no piece written for that kind of spot: along the eaves, porch posts and rail, the front door.

One of the pieces here is rated by its maker for covered use only, and this shape has a spot under a roof to put it, which is why it can be in the plan at all.

The one nice thing version comes in at $330.24 against a $500 ceiling on this shape, which leaves real room for a second run of lights or a better centrepiece.

first, the deal with your yard

Read this before you buy anything

Distance is the whole problem. Your house sits 55 ft back and most decorations are sized for a yard a third of that, so everything you buy needs to be bigger than instinct says. The upside is that you can layer front to back, which nobody with a shallow yard can do. Give yourself something near the sidewalk, something in the middle and something at the house, and the yard has depth instead of one distant bright spot. Extension cord length stops being a detail and becomes the budget.

Who's looking, and from where

  • The long view straight up the walk from the sidewalk
  • The compressed view from directly across the street
  • Walking up the path, where the middle layer is at eye level

The classic mistake

Putting everything up by the house where you can see it from the front door. From the street it collapses into one small cluster with 40 ft of empty lawn in front of it.

Check this one thing

A long run of outdoor cord wants a heavier gauge than the one in your garage. Look for 14 gauge or thicker for anything over 50 ft, and keep the connections up off wet ground.

same yard, four budgets

Pick your number

Every version below was worked out against the map up there, and nothing gets a spot unless it physically fits. Footprint and height both. The Do it yourself version is free and complete, so you can go do that today. The other three are the paid guide.

Every price below was checked on or after 27 September 2026, and each item carries its own date. Holiday pricing moves weekly.

Do it yourself Free

stays under $250
$217.30 $32.70 to spare

One weekend, a sheet of plywood and some string lights. Costs almost nothing and still stops traffic.

The Do it yourself plan: every piece, its spot on the drawing, how big it is, how many and what it costs.
Spot What to get How big How many Cost
A Plywood Bigfoot Build it
The star. As far back as the yard allows, half behind a shrub or the corner of the house, turned about 20 degrees off the street. Put the spotlight on the ground behind or beside it and never in front: lit from the front it is painted plywood, lit from behind it is a shape you are not sure about.
6' 4" H 1 $57
B Bigfoot Crossing Sign, etched steel (opens in a new tab) Amazon
Sidekick, left. One sign, at the front edge of the lawn on the side people approach from, facing the road like real signage. It stands about knee high, so it has to be close enough to the sidewalk to read. Set back on the grass it is just a shape.
2' 5" H 1 $39.95
C Hanging Bats, 24 pack, five sizes (opens in a new tab) Amazon 24 pieces
Sidekick, right. Elastic loops, so they hang off what is already there: a porch edge, a fence rail, a low branch. Hang the big ones low where somebody walks past them and the small ones high. All twenty-four in one place reads as a trash bag caught in a tree.
10" H 1 $18.99
D Solar Path Light Stakes, 10 pack (opens in a new tab) Amazon 10 pieces
The approach lights. Both sides of the walk for the last 36 ft up to the door. You do not need to light the whole 55 ft. Starting the run partway up pulls the eye toward the house instead of stopping it at the sidewalk.
1' 3" H 2 $49.38
E Orange Incandescent Mini Lights, 300 count (opens in a new tab) Amazon 300 pieces
Roofline and porch. Gutter line and porch. Use the biggest bulb you are willing to buy. At this distance small twinkle lights turn into a faint smudge.
2" H 2 $51.98
the plug situation

2 things need an outlet, about 2.2 amps all together. That all fits on one 15 amp circuit, you are fine. Outdoor GFCI outlets only, and leave a drip loop in the cord at every plug so rain runs off instead of in.

You will also need

The cord is the part everybody forgets, and stores run out of them at the peak of every season. Outdoor rated only, and plugged into a GFCI outlet.

About $31.96 of hardware, on top of the $217.30 of decorations. Buy it once and it comes back out every year.

Image prompt for this exact list
Photorealistic evening photograph of a two-story colonial house on a deep narrow, 42 ft of street frontage with a 55 ft front setback, photographed from the sidewalk at the front lot line looking straight up the long walk toward the house, showing the full depth of the yard, camera height 5.5 ft. The yard is decorated in a cryptid crossing theme. Roadside warning signs, glowing eyes in the shrubs and something large standing at the edge of the light. Less gore than most Halloween themes and quite a lot more unsettling, which makes it the one that works on a quiet street. Decorations, in position: 1. The star: a tall flat matte black ape shaped figure standing at the back of a lawn mid stride, arms hanging long, lit from behind so only the outline shows, 6.3 ft tall. As far back as the yard allows, half behind a shrub or the corner of the house, turned about 20 degrees off the street. Put the spotlight on the ground behind or beside it and never in front: lit from the front it is painted plywood, lit from behind it is a shape you are not sure about. 2. Sidekick, left: two yellow diamond road signs on posts, each with a black creature silhouette on it, planted at the edge of the lawn, 2.4 ft tall. One sign, at the front edge of the lawn on the side people approach from, facing the road like real signage. It stands about knee high, so it has to be close enough to the sidewalk to read. Set back on the grass it is just a shape. 3. Sidekick, right: rubber bats in five sizes hung at different heights off a porch edge and a shrub, the big ones low and the small ones high, 0.8 ft tall. Elastic loops, so they hang off what is already there: a porch edge, a fence rail, a low branch. Hang the big ones low where somebody walks past them and the small ones high. All twenty-four in one place reads as a trash bag caught in a tree. 4. The approach lights: 2 of them, a line of short stake lights glowing softly along the edge of a walkway, no cords running between them, 1.3 ft tall. Both sides of the walk for the last 36 ft up to the door. You do not need to light the whole 55 ft. Starting the run partway up pulls the eye toward the house instead of stopping it at the sidewalk. 5. Roofline and porch: 2 of them, a dense run of small orange bulbs following a roofline, warm and slightly sickly rather than festive, 0.2 ft tall. Gutter line and porch. Use the biggest bulb you are willing to buy. At this distance small twinkle lights turn into a faint smudge. Shot at dusk with the sky still faintly blue, every lit decoration switched on and brighter than anything else in the frame, warm light spilling onto the lawn. Palette: #3E4A38, #8A6A3A, #D6C24A, #1F241C. Nothing floats; every piece sits on the ground at the stated distance. Scale reference: the front door is 80 inches tall.

see it first

The other two prompts

Each budget above has its own prompt for the finished yard, because each one is a different list of things. These two do not change between budgets: one for the empty yard so you have a before picture, and the negative prompt that stops every image model on earth from burying your lawn in snow you did not ask for.

the free ones keep coming

New plans go up through the season

The Do it yourself version above is free and complete, and every theme that goes up gets one, drawn for all ten yard shapes. That is 10 free plans per theme, and the list grows through the season.

One email when there is something new. Nothing else, ever.