The New Mailbox

When I first bought the property the old mailbox looked tired and sad. Propped up with a small stick on one side of the post, it looked as though it would topple over with the first autumn wind. Its paint and numbers were worn and the whole underside of the box had been gobbled away by carpenter ants. This week I decided to give it new life. I wanted to reuse the same box and salvage as much of the post as I could.  

Here is what the mailbox looked like when I first bought the property.

Here is what it looked like after I removed it from the post.

After sanding it down and scraping the loose paint away, I used spray paint to coat both the inside and the outside of the box. I love the new bright red color and painting the inside seems to finish it nicely.

                                                           Matt  dug a new hole for the post.

                    After rebuilding the post, Michael brought it over to insert it into the newly dug hole.

Matt filled the bucket with cement and then added water. This new post will never lean like the old one.

                                                    Matt and I painted the rebuilt post white.

                           When the paint dried, Matt screwed on the newly painted mailbox.

And Voila! A nice new mailbox. I'll plant some pretty flowers and hosta around the bottom of the post.

I added some extra touches by painting the front tabs and the side-flag black. 

Matt suggested I paint the "U.S. MAIL" letters on the front of the box white. 

I liked that idea so I might just try my hand at it today. 

        

                                                          What a difference a little paint makes!
                                       I'm already imagining how it will look at Christmas time.

My resident turkey flock was very excited to see the new mailbox when they visited yesterday.