The advantage of living where we do in the Dallas area means
that, because our house sits atop a limestone cliff, the soil under the house
doesn't shift as it gets wet or dries as it does in so much of Dallas County,
making for a much more stable foundation than many houses in the area.
The
disadvantage of living where we do in the Dallas area means that, if I wish to
change out the mailbox by the street, about six inches down through the topsoil
I run into, oh yeah, a limestone cliff.
But the mailbox needed changing out; it really should have been
mounted a little closer to the street, and the metal post it was mounted on was
rusting through at ground level and I didn’t know how much longer it would
stand up to the regular opening and closing of its door. And besides, it was showing its age.
So I spent a good portion of a Saturday morning drilling and
chiseling my way down another few inches of limestone in order to set the
post. Because no matter that limestone is a "soft" stone, it takes a lot
of work to drill and chisel my way through it, and to get the kind of depth I
really “should” have for the post, it would have taken me at least three more
weekends to do that, and that wasn't in the cards.
Not no how, not no way; not in Texas summer
heat. (The only reason we hadn’t
officially hit 100°F yet is because they take the “official” temperature out at
D/FW Airport, away from the heat-sink that is the city; Love Field, a little north
of downtown Dallas, had hit 100°F last week.) So, last Monday, off to Lowe’s to get mortar mix for
laying bricks. (I had gone there early
on Sunday morning, but got there a full half-hour before they opened. It was raining hard at the time, and I didn’t
feel like either (1) waiting for them to open, or (2) going back later.)
On Tuesday,
an hour in the heat (it was 95 and the mosquitoes were out in full force...at
least the mosquitoes here in Dallas aren't like the Gulf Coast mosquitoes.
Although, to be honest, people tend to exaggerate the size of Gulf Coast
mosquitoes, with stories about them carrying off babies and small dogs when, in
fact, most Gulf Coast mosquitoes are actually no larger than a man's hand) and
all of the bricks in the column around the lower
upright post were laid.
Wednesday,
filled the brick column with concrete, in order to give the mailbox to be
mounted atop said post sufficient stability.
Thursday, mount the mailbox (already attached to the upper portion of
the two-piece post) on the lower post, add numbers and reflective stickers
(because it’s now closer to the street and a little bit more in danger of being
sideswiped; plus, its matte brown color means it blends into the background
foliage more than the old mailbox, and therefore harder to see when you’re
driving down the street).
It’s not quite perpendicular to the street, though I
think there may be a way to square it up a little more. But I’m not digging it up to reset it because
that would mean starting from scratch, which would probably involve digging a
little deeper into that limestone just six inches down.
Still and all, I think it looks okay, and
besides, the house's foundation is stable because, oh, yeah, did I mention that
the house sits atop a limestone cliff?
