The Battle With The Mail Box

We have recently been assigned physical addresses.  Requirements are to change our mailing address, renumber our mail boxes and have a box for each residence.

We and Marcy have been sharing one box since the tornado flattened ours with a huge walnut tree. Since it was compressed to the thickness of a pancake stack, I thought there was no way I could hammer it back into shape.

It's been on my mind to do this but like they say a mechanic's car is never fixed, I guess a postal employee doesn't redo their mail box either.

I had asked Hubby to come up with some brilliant idea to attach the extra mail box to the existing welded support but received no suggestions nor responses.  That left me to come up with something.

First I painted Marcy's box and the post (ours had been fastened to the tree that killed it, both are gone) with a can of black I had.  Just one can, so now the search began for my box, an old one I found stashed in the lean-to of the shop.  Imagine me having cans of purple paint!  Yep, the new mail box is purple as a grape...well, maybe purple as a hyacinth.

I painted mine, while it dried I placed the new numbers on Marcy's box.  So far, so good.

Then I had to think!  How in the heck was I going to fasten this mail box, equal height, to a single iron arm that held the other box.  Each box has a wooden insert under the bottom on the box to enable you to secure it to a post. 

It hit me...a board connecting the two boxes by the bottom of their boards...like Lego blocks.  Searched for a board, got my drill and screws, then decided I needed to paint the board.  Now, it doesn't sound like much but I am getting tired. 

Like the Bed in a Box, this would have been a great photo opportunity.  I did it backwards.  Instead of screwing the loose board to the bottom of the fixed box, I screwed it to the new box...see I needed some mental help with this problem, or help with my mental problem... 

The paint on the board was still wet but I was ready to get through with this SIMPLE project.  Now, if you are following me on this, I had to screw the board into the bottom of the mail box with another floating mailbox attached to said board.

It was not easy!  I could not balance the box on the board long enough to secure it.  I searched for something to prop up the box, tried a few things, decided to ask hubby to help.  You guessed it, he was snoring in the recliner. 

I am a tad stubborn so I proceeded on my own.  I finally found an old walker(yep, an old folks walker) and a barrel stave.  I open the walker and wedged the barrel stave to hold up the box while I screwed the board into the stationary box.

I have purple paint all over me, the lid kept falling open on the old mailbox, made many trips to the house to get a fresh battery for the drill, a hammer, and a pair of pliers to fix the lid that kept dropping on me.  Finally, with the help of barrel stave and walker, I screwed the last screw into the box...and it stayed!!!!

Not one time did it enter my mind, I was doing it backwards!!!  If I had only thought, screw the board to the stationary piece first...but then I would not have had this story to tell.