The house didn’t come with a mailbox, so I went on a quest to find a glorious old one that would fit the aesthetic of the house.
Total fail – I found one, but definitely cannot justify spending $700 on an antique Victorian mailbox, no matter how cool it is.
I also found a pretty cool old one for $20 at a nice vintage/antique store in Gettysburg, PA, but it opened from the side and doesn’t really work as a road-side mailbox.
Failed again; I gave up and started over.
Since little kid Aly always wanted a fun mailbox, I changed gears and started shopping on etsy instead of ebay.
I loved a lot of the options, but an annoying personal quirk sprung into dominance in my brain, and I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much money* when I could totally make it myself for way less.**
So Wes, Oberon, and I started the mailbox building process.
I googled plans (plans are a loose term, I used it as a rough visual guide at best), bought lumber, and picked up some outdoor paint. We painted all the pieces, put them together (a bit), and pressed pause for several weeks til we went up to the house next.
Painting the lumber 
Hammering the pieces together
I actually remembered to buy a handle and hinges, but forgot to bring the paint up to the house so we had to buy more (so much for saving money). I also maybe measured things wrong (or should have read any of the instructions) so some additional cuts (and undoing of cuts) were needed. Eventually, the stupid thing was ready for waterproofing.
New little cuts on the top 
Un-cutting the notches a wee bit… 
Obi was actually painting here.
I let him do the inside of the roof.
Waterproofing
With the mailbox nearly ready, and Sergiu slogging away in the attic (in 90 degree weather), Wes and I used our new sledge hammer to pound the post stakes*** into ground… and then had to use our giant muscles to straighten them enough to put the pieces together to make the posts. Sergiu helped after the hard parts were done.
This is what happens when you hit pine with a sledge hammer. Over. And over. And over. The ground was really hard – it was not an easy task. 
Our beautiful mailboxes bench.
With all the pieces assembled, we finally (3 days + ~3 weeks later) finished**** the mailbox. And it is awesome.
Finishing touches 
Totally done!****
*Most of the decent ones I found ranged between $125 and $350
**This is debatable – I’m guessing somewhere around $75 – $100 for all the parts and supplies
***I bought these after attempting to dig holes in the crazy compact/rocky dirt. Stakes it is!
****It’s not actually finished, I still have to decide what I want to use (and how to do it) to make the chimney (flag)
That looks cute! And you’ll cherish it more than that lovely but shockingly-priced $700 antique.
And, since you showed me yours, I’ll show you mine:
https://lageose.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/strange-things-to-say-to-postman-03312017.jpg
Yes, it’s built into the wall on the front porch, allowing things to drop down into a catch, and we can retrieve items by opening a little door on our side of things. And no, it does not grant access to larger items, although some of the mail carriers try to cram things into it all the time. But I love the charm.
P.S. If the photo does not show (and I won’t know until I submit this comment, dagnabbit) then you can go here to find a post where I used the same photo:
https://brianlageose.blog/2019/05/26/25-strange-things-to-say-to-the-postman-as-he-opens-your-mailbox-2/
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Thanks! 2 years in, I did a horrible job picking the right materials as it’s already warping a bit and various arthropodi have set up entertainment centers inside where take turns jump-scaring me and the mailman.
I love your mailbox! I considered one like that, but our sometimes mailman* won’t even deliver to the roadside one if there is a 1/8″ of snow anywhere in sight, so probably for the best I didn’t try to convince him to walk up to our house. I did think about installing pneumatic tubes, but decided to be responsible and put that toward the end of the to do list.
*before any mail carriers read this and I’m appropriately flogged for the slight, the rest of our USPS personnel and mailmen are fantastic. The one referred to above is thankfully temporary and only occasional.
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