Mail boxes...then and now

Most people don't give a second thought to their mail boxes.  As long as the door closes and opens and the mail box post is some what vertical......they call it good.  I've always had a 'thing' for a good mail box and a nice mail box post.

Several years ago, we updated the mail box post and mail box with a plastic version that matched the wrought iron driveway gates.  You need to be fairly close to realize that it isn't iron and we were satisfied and happy with the outcome.

In rolls the winter of 2013-2014 and the plow blasted our mail box and post three times.  It's frustrating. R was able to fix it but the mail box had seen better days.  I receive a lot of packages and I prefer a large mail box so when Ace hardware sent me a one day 20% off coupon, I took the chance to get the LARGEST mail box they offered.  It's metal and should hold up to the force of the snow better than the plastic mail box.

R will install the mail box next year but right now we are installing a vintage mail box on the front of the house.  It's a vintage Griswold mail box with the newspaper brackets still attached.  Griswold is the same company that makes the cast iron frying pans.

The mail box was in pretty bad condition when I purchased it off of eBay.  I have no idea how many coats of paint were on the mail box but after sand blasting it, I still needed to use an Exacto knife to get the paint out of the crevices.  I then sand blasted it again, primed it, and spray painted it satin black.  Then stored it away for the last 6 years until I brought it out two weeks ago covered in dust.

We marked where we wanted to hang the mail box after we finished installing the shingles.  It was then that we realized that we needed to cut out a 1/2 thick piece to place under the lower portion of the mail box so that it would be vertical when installed.  After tracing the outline of the bottom of the mail box on a 1/2 inch thick piece of cedar, we used a coping saw to cut out the profile.

While we had the mail box out, we noticed that it has a place to install a small pad lock to keep the mail secure.  This mail box isn't intended for use because we receive our mail out at the street.  But for the sake of authenticity, we thought we should look for a small vintage pad lock.  All of our lock sets are Corbin so imagine my surprise when I found a small Corbin pad lock on Etsy.  It has the same logo as the cylinder lock just two foot away.  The pad lock even has the key.  The tag on the key says 'wood chest'  so that must have been it previous use.  The lock currently has lacquer on it so I will remove that so it can tarnish more evenly.  Eventually I will hang the key on a hook by the front door.

I was able to get half of the front entrance primed before the rain started.  Even though I wasn't looking forward to the rain, it gave us the chance to see if the PVC drip edge that we installed under the bottom row of shingles, would help keep the shingles from wicking water.  So far so good.