The first necessity at the new house was a mailbox!  Because our home was new construction, we had a brand new address which required a new mailbox.  Out here in the boonies the route carriers call the shots, rather than the main post office and its common practice to have a ‘group row’ of mailboxes at the entrance to the neighborhood rather than individual boxes at each driveway.   

Our route carrier requested that we either add a new box to the group row or rent a lockable box in the group terminal next to the row.  When we discovered that the rental box was almost $200/year and required an annual contract we opted to go with a personal mailbox.

We picked out one we thought would stand up to the elements and I had grand plans to paint our address on it with the same gold paint I used for my gold dipped wedges.

That idea quickly went down in flames when the stencil didn’t fit well and the first letter turned out like this.

My next option was to use my Silhouette, which still had to be unpacked and set up. So the next day I found the Silhouette and set it up along with the computer.   I chose a simple font and measured the size I thought would look good, then arranged our name and address for the front flap.

Once the design was cut, I applied it to the front of the box, pulling off the excess vinyl and leaving behind the necessary text.

I was quite proud of my handi-work and went to show the hubs who noted that we didn’t have to put our name on the box, just the address.  My response: “Oh.”  I wasn’t about to tear off my hard work, so I just removed the name when I resized the same art or the side of the box.

Once my portion was done, the hubs rigged an extension for the row and added our mailbox at the head of the line.  Come spring, when the ground thaws, we’ll install our own post, since we’re not sure how long the extension will hold up over time.

It’s simple, yet functional.  I might jazz it up a little more later or I might forget about it and focus on other projects.  Either way, we now have a spot to receive mail and that’s what really matters.