Monday, June 18, 2007

Cool, affordable house numbers

Wow, some folks are actually reading this! Thanks houseblogs.net! I'll have to try harder to be interesting and amusing. So, I'll just add small things when I can, instead of always apologizing for not updating more frequently.

Our latest token home improvement is new address numbers. So far they were only on the door and not too visible. These will go on the front of the porch roof, much better.

We used House Numbers Only, a website with lots of funky styles, for about $10 each. Powder-coated steel, in black or copper color, about 5x2.5 inches. We went with the Craftsman, no surprise.

I emailed them to ask, and they said they are made in USA, yay. A bit of a hand-cut quality to them, but I think that is actually fitting in this case. Now to actually put them up...

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Our five-year-old says:

Our Spiderworts are very beautiful. Our house is very nice. I like everything that's here and I like the yard. Better than our old house 'cause they tore down houses there [Gotta instill values somehow; maybe a bit much warping though. Ed.] and it's nice living in this house and I have a lot of new friends.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

New copper mailbox

Apparently our 89-year old house has never had a mailbox. We are used to having one, and got tired of having our magazines and such folded and crammed through the mail slot in the aluminum storm door.

Trying to keep with our arts and crafts theme, with Celtic accents, we went with a handmade (but not obscenely expensive) one at Gaelsong.com.




Two days and no one has swiped it, great. We do read about people stealing copper downspouts nearby, so I don't think we are worrying needlessly. It's nice and solid and works great, though it is a bit rough in a handmade (in Turkey) sort of way.

It is bare copper, and we are a bit torn over letting it get a natural patina vs. trying to lacquer it and keep it shiny. Going the natural approach so far; worst
case we can polish it and spray it with something later.