Mailbox Makeover

As mentioned in my previous post, there are a lot of relatively minor things in and around our new house that could use fixing or updated.  The bubble-gum pink guest bedroom, for instance.  Or, in this case, the seriously disgusting, rusty old mailbox out in front of the house.

Lovely, no?  Very classy, what with the giant patches of rust and peeling paint.  Plus, the chipped old sign with our house number on it looks very elegant.  For some reason, once I took stock of how icky the mailbox was, it started to really bother me, and I decided that it must be my next project.  Then I found these pretty mailbox vinyl stickers on Etsy and I got a little bit obsessed.  Never mind that the bookcase is in the garage ready to be primed and painted (I keep finding more spots that need to be filled with wood putty and then sanded before I can prime it).  I was absolutely positive that I could refinish this crappy mailbox for less than the price of a new one.  I was right, but I did encounter a few pitfalls along the way.

Painting a mailbox while it is still on the post is very difficult and messy, and cleaning it on the post is just about impossible.  So last Sunday morning after Nick left to go to the Redskins game, I set to work removing the screw that attached the back of the mailbox to the post.  Easy-peasy.  Then I tried to remove the screw anchoring the bottom interior wall to the post.  Except that it wasn't a screw.

A nail?  Seriously?  Who the heck nails a mailbox to its post?  Apparently someone who doesn't plan to ever repaint their mailbox and wants to make life difficult for the next homeowner.  This nail rapidly became the bane of my Sunday afternoon.

We have two hammers.  The back of the small one (you know, the back - the part that is supposed to remove nails) was too small.  The large hammer fit around the nail but the stupid handle was too big for the mailbox.  So after 15-20 minutes of careful maneuvering so as not to hit myself in the face with the hammer when it slipped off the nail, I had accomplished this:

 

This is the point where I called Nick (en route to the football game) to vent and ask for advice.  He suggested trying to loosen the nail+mailbox by hammering on it from underneath.  I tried that for a while and made minimal progress.  Went back and forth between the two different approaches for what felt like forever but was probably no more than thirty minutes.  Eventually the mailbox was loosened enough to freely rotate on the post, but the nail remained firmly in place.  Witness:

 

Are you not amused?  I sure was.  Also, tired - I was tired.  Eventually I fatigued the metal enough that the mailbox actually pulled free of the nail altogether.  I wasn't about to argue.  So then I carried it over to the lawn and rinsed it thoroughly inside and out with the hose.  There were years-old bundles of spiderwebs underneath - ick!  Once it was clean, I laid it out in the sunny driveway to dry, and went to Lowe's to buy my supplies: a wire brush (for scrubbing off paint and rust), two spray cans of Rustoleum (a primer for rusty metal and a matte black), and a small can of red paint plus a foam brush to repaint the rusty "we're sending mail out" flag.  I had already ordered the vinyl sticker and was awaiting its delivery.

The mailbox was dry by the time I had returned, so I scrubbed off as much old rust and paint as I could with the wire brush and cleaned off the debris.  Next came two coats of Rustoleum primer:

No, I don't know why I shot this like a Rustoleum ad.  Don't ask.
Looks better already, though!

After the primer dried I applied two coats of matte black, and repainted the red flag, like so:

I left this to dry overnight and updated my terrific husband on my progress when he returned from his football game.  I also let him know that the mailbox post/nail and I had exchanged some rather unpleasant words, and therefore getting the mailbox back onto the post was going to be his job.  *grin*  Trooper that he is, he agreed without complaint.  Apparently he spent hours the next morning working on this, because my efforts to free the mailbox had loosened the post, so he needed to resecure it.  He was also unable to get rid of that stupid nail, so he hammered it back into the post in a location that would not interfere with reattachment.  Between the two of us, the neighbors must think we're nuts.  But I don't care, because now my mailbox does not look like it's older than I am.

When I got home from work last night I discovered that my mailbox stickers had arrived, much to my delight, and looked every bit as good as I had hoped.  With the minor exception that whoever packaged them folded them, creating some creases in a couple of the stickers.  So this morning I carried them outside and carefully applied them to the mailbox...

Then slowly peeled them off to reveal the final touch:

Ta-da!  Pretty nifty!  Not perfect - the paint job on the backside of the mailbox needs a touch-up.  But we live at the end on a cul-de-sac and the only people who will see it are us, the postal worker, and one set of neighbors.  So no biggie.  I could have spaced the lettering farther from the numbers but I had to clear the screws at the bottom of the box and I didn't want to deal with the curve at the top.  I will probably remove (or at least) update) the tacky little sign but the screws are rusted in.

So let's recap.  For less than the cost of a new mailbox we have one that looks nearly brand-new and is almost swanky.  In a few years the post will need replacing, but that should be doable because Nick used screws for attachment.  Now when folks approach they will know for sure that they're in the right place!

Before and After.

Quite an improvement, if I do say so myself!