Day Three: Prep the opening for the new box. Heavy grinding was required on the front mortar. Completely rebuilding the brick interior was also necessary as these bricks were simply piled on top and around the old box in no apparent order. This is where Julia’s Tetris skills shined strong. We also had to reinforce the interior with a bit of lumber due to so much brick disruption. Tomorrow we will slide in the new metal mailbox and call it a job well done.

Day Four: Slide in the new box. Well, not so fast. It didn’t fit. The new box didn’t fit for the same reason the old box wouldn’t slide out. These metal mailboxes are put together in part by crimping different pieces of sheet metal together at the rear of the box. This crimping creates a little flange that sticks up around the circumference of the box by about ¼ inch. However, this added height was just enough to prevent the new box from fitting in the brick structure and the old box from sliding out. So, what to do?

It was at this moment that Bob was tempted to leave the tools where they lay and hop in the van and vamoose. He was already missing the old rusting box with a door barely hanging on with duct tape. Fixing it would have been the furthest thing from his mind while enjoying a campground far, far away. He’s sure the mail carrier would have gotten out of his truck and put the door back on to the box when it fell off in his hands as he opened it. He’s such a nice guy. Besides, we use a post office box for most of our mail.

Instead, we persevered by cutting off the flange. This allowed the box to slide in, but it did have one unfortunate downside – the mailbox no longer held together as all the individual sheet metal pieces came apart. No crimpy, no holdy. So, we found ourselves applying the same fix to the new flangeless box that we originally applied to the old box – duct tape. We taped all the joints together on the backside of the box and voila! We had a mailbox that fit as we slid it into place – barely. Just like sliding a slightly used insole into an old shoe. Happily, the duct tape is extra strength tape and isn’t exposed to the weather, the joints it is holding together aren’t under any stress or movement and the brick interior is moisture free.

Life was now good. The box was in, and we had finally finis…uh, wait, not quite yet. The door didn’t close well – or stay closed. The cheap mechanism used to keep it closed bent easily. Ugh! After much consternation (Bob) and thought (Julia), we came up with an ideal solution: glue in place a couple of rare earth magnets on the door. When the door is pushed closed, these magnets are against the body of the box, creating a nice firm grip. And the door was still easy to open. Ok, now life is good.

But what does this have to do with why we leave home? Simple. The mailbox is somehow mysteriously connected to the clothes dryer vent. We have since spent three days unclogging and repairing the vent pipe that goes from our dryer to the outside. We won’t bore you with the daily efforts taken to clean out nearly 25 feet of lint, with part of the work taking place under the house, in a crawl space that appears to be home to spiders, rodents and snakes. (To be fair, we have never seen a snake down there, just a snakeskin.) Anyway, look at this short, yet satisfying video as we approached the finish line.