Invisible Address

Hi guys, thanks for stopping by!

Brace yourself, this post will be image HEAVY.

Our house is up on a little hill, with two large Bradford pear trees in the front. I have a love/hate relationship with those trees. On one hand, they provide a little privacy and shade, and they block the neighbors' ugly fence. On the other hand, they're freakin' Bradford pears and are pretty much the worst kind of tree to have in the South during the winter months (or any months, for that matter). They're top heavy, and are prone to splitting during high winds or ice storms. If I had it my way, they'd be ripped out and replaced with dogwoods or birch trees. 

Anyway, those monstrous trees also block the view of our house number. We have our address on our mailbox, but those numbers are tiny. I've watched almost every visitor we've had pass our house and turn around in the next cul-de-sac because of our invisible address. 

So I thought, "I CAN FIX THIS!"

 A while back, my dad trimmed up an old oak tree that I used to climb as a kid, and gave me about 20 slices of one of the limbs. I've painted some scriptures on a few, but I wanted to do something useful with the others. That's when I got the idea to use them as plaques for our address; I just needed to figure out how best to display them. 

I toyed with a few versions of this project before deciding on the final product, and I'm very pleased with the result. 

First, I had to take a trip to Lowe's. I used to HATE Lowe's as a kid, but its become a home improvement playground for me and Hurb. I bought a package of 1/2x1x18 inch garden stakes (find them in the decking section), two 1inx2inx8ft pine planks (which I had cut into eight 2-ft. pieces),  3/4 inch exterior wood screws, wood stain, spray paint, and house numbers. I already had sandpaper and stain rags at home. 

The first step was to prepare the wood for stain. Because the pieces were fairly smooth to begin with, I roughed them up with a medium grain sanding pad. 

If there's one thing I love, its spray paint. I've used spray paint to refinish almost all the lamps in our home, a ton of picture frames, as well as our coffee and end tables. I prefer Rust-Oleum, and chose Hammered Copper to refinish the house numbers I had purchased. 

 

While my numbers were drying, I began staining the wood with Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Weathered Gray. The initial coat seemed a bit heavy (the very top stake shows that), so I used a clean rag to wipe away extra stain. Definitely a good life choice!

The oak slices had a hard time accepting the stain, so I scrubbed each piece with the sanding block after staining. 

After everything had dried, I began measuring for the frame. I left 3 inches of space on either end of the three cross pieces, with 1.5 inches of vertical space in between. Once all of my marks were made, I used the wood screws to fasten everything together (no step by step pictures here, because I got too excited)! 

Side note: the previous owner of our home built a work bench in the garage and it is AWESOME. 

Getting the numbers onto the wood plaques was easy. I centered the numbers as best I could, and screwed them in. But I wanted to ensure that the screws that fastened the plaques to the frame were hidden. I laid the plaques on the frame to make sure the numbers were straight, removed the numbers, and made a mark where I needed to drill. Oak is surprisingly difficult to drill through, by the way. 

After drilling my holes, I used the 1.75 inch exterior wood screws to attach the plaques to the frame. Then I screwed the numbers back on, and straightened as needed. 

Hurb was responsible for getting it into the ground at our mailbox, and I love it! I plan to scrape the stickers off our mailbox at some point. Also, I will probably make a sign for the other side, so guests can see which house is ours from whichever way they enter our neighborhood. 

I'd say that this is a good project for beginners. If you can work a power drill and have four hours to spare, you're good!