Arizona

The Mailbox Project is almost complete. We brought an antique milk can from California and had a hole cut in the bottom to allow a mailbox supporting post to pass through the milk can into the ground. The landscape crew, when they were working here, dug the hole in the ground and poured some concrete to secure the post in place.

We added some finishing touches to the project. First, I got a Stars and Stripes magnetic mailbox wrap to continue the patriotic theme. Second, we bought some brass numerals to put our address (inset) on the post.

We didn’t stain the post because natural aging process will eventually make the wood look rustic which is what we want. The brass numerals will also acquire a patina over time.

We drove out to Congress today to have a look at the finished courtyard gate at Mike’s studio. Mike called this morning to advise that he would be finished shortly and to come have a look if we wanted.

When we got there, we were both amazed at how good this was looking. I took photos of the gate on the workbench and Bob put this slideshow together. Mouse over to stop and out to resume.

We completed our landscape and sun screen milestones yesterday and today, respectively. The landscape crew finished cleaning up the vegetation and spread the rest of the rocks yesterday. They also lined two small washes that run through the west side of the lot with river rocks to avert erosion. One of the washes runs across the RV pull through, so they dug a small ditch across the road and leveled it out with large river rocks.

The sun screen man came out this morning and installed the screens on all exterior windows. He was done with the job just a couple hours after he arrived in the “screenmobile.” He constructed all of the screens on site.

Although it wasn’t a milestone we named before, Verna’s unique rural mailbox design is also complete and installed. We got our first mail delivered to it today.

Watch the slideshow below to see the entry arch (gate coming soon), one of the sixty six rosemary shrubs planted on the “wall” behind the house, the new mailbox, both washes with river rock, the RV pull through and one of the newly-installed sun screens. Roll over the image with your mouse to stop the slideshow and roll out to resume.