endangeredspecies
Well-known member
I wish locking mailboxes didn't need to be "a thing." Our current rental has mail delivered into a box in the garage through a slot in the wall. Very handy, except the garage is too small for cars, people, and storage to coexist - so I need to open the garage door to check the mail. Poor me. Not like I even need to step past the driveway.
At our previous place, I twice found my neighbor's mail strewn about down the road, and there were constant notices of mail theft. So we got a locking box. Functional, but ugly.
The mailbox at our new place - under renovation - was kinda sad, and threatening to fall over. It's known to be a very safe neighborhood (as was our previous one) but alerts of petty crime have been on the upswing since we bought it. As we generally make it over there once every couple weeks, we don't want important documents sitting unsecured for days on end. We had not begun mail delivery. But, we've missed a bunch of important delivereies: Title documents, water notifications, property tax bills, Amazon packages which somehow come via USPS instead of smiley truck.
Long story still long: We need to get mail there, but aren't comfortable doing so in an insecure mailbox.
Yes, I could have placed a 40lb locking mailbox on the old post, but it probably would hold up another month or 2. I don't want to do twice what I could do right once.
We also want something to update the place, look nice, maybe coordinate with the new garage doors:


The wife REALLY likes this one. As do I, actually:

I figure I can do something close, in cedar.
Here's how it started:

So I dug it out, distributed a layer of granite gravel, poured some concrete, and reinforced with rebar:





At our previous place, I twice found my neighbor's mail strewn about down the road, and there were constant notices of mail theft. So we got a locking box. Functional, but ugly.
The mailbox at our new place - under renovation - was kinda sad, and threatening to fall over. It's known to be a very safe neighborhood (as was our previous one) but alerts of petty crime have been on the upswing since we bought it. As we generally make it over there once every couple weeks, we don't want important documents sitting unsecured for days on end. We had not begun mail delivery. But, we've missed a bunch of important delivereies: Title documents, water notifications, property tax bills, Amazon packages which somehow come via USPS instead of smiley truck.
Long story still long: We need to get mail there, but aren't comfortable doing so in an insecure mailbox.
Yes, I could have placed a 40lb locking mailbox on the old post, but it probably would hold up another month or 2. I don't want to do twice what I could do right once.
We also want something to update the place, look nice, maybe coordinate with the new garage doors:


The wife REALLY likes this one. As do I, actually:

I figure I can do something close, in cedar.
Here's how it started:

So I dug it out, distributed a layer of granite gravel, poured some concrete, and reinforced with rebar:





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