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2/22/12

The Brown House on the Left (Between the Other Two Brown Houses on the Left)

Since moving to Idaho, I have noticed it's fairly hard to find where you're going in town.  Not from business to business, but more when you're going to another person's house.

You see, the addresses are hard to spot.  There are no residential address plaques or mailboxes with numbers on most streets.

Even my house has dark brown numbers on a slightly lighter brown mailbox (which is against the house, not at the sidewalk).  If it's dark outside or my mailbox is covered in snow, you've missed me.  People revert to saying "the brown house on the left with the blue car in the driveway" yet that narrows down the choice to three houses on the street.

Once or twice, I've called a friend while driving back and forth, asking them to come out and wave me down... while inconvenient, it's better than sticking my head out of the car, yelling "JARED!!!  JARED!!!  DUDE, WHICH HOUSE IS YOURS??!?"

Instead of the personalized address plaques you see today, I grew up with numbers painted on the curb.  But you could get away with that in California, since it never snowed and you could always see the curb.

In Idaho, you really do need something you can see from the street, in rain or snow, no matter the condition.  Painted curbs won't work in the snow, because they'll be covered in an instant.

Which is why I'm tempted to get one of the custom address plaques you see online, and I plan on putting it right under the porch light.  

Will it stick out like a sore thumb on my old house?  Maybe.  But you know what, people will be able to find my house.  I can tell them my actual address, or tell them "look for the shiny bronze plaque on the shabby brown house.  You can't miss it..."

Now, the main question:  Should I get a Carolina Panthers plaque like pictured above, and support my football team?  Or maybe one with my blog's logo, and "I'm watching you..." printed beneath the numbers?  Choices choices...

23 comments:

  1. LOL, I'd go for the latter. That's well funny!

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  2. Even with the clear weather out here I still have trouble finding the address numbers.

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  3. A Panthers fan huh? I live in Panthers country and you don't see many of those mailboxes around here. Strange huh?

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  4. Two words: Neon Lights

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  5. Definitely option 2! Much more fun plus it's entirely true. Your house is your own private (section of) Idaho.

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  6. I enjoy option #2.

    I grew up in a snow belt state myself. We had both curb side painted addresses and numbers on our house. Overkill? Maybe... but people could always find our door. If only we didn't keep GIANT dogs that made people fear coming up to it. (I swear they were all super friendly).

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  7. lol what, addresses on the curb? who would u see them? dont the local skate board kids just cover the curbs up with wax anyways

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  8. Option #2 would be a great idea! Or you could paint your house pink since there are so many brown houses around. It would stand out like a sore thumb!

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  9. Oh the woe of house numbers in old small towns, I know them well! Back in '06 when the 5 local communities amalgamated here, they (municipal gov't) re-vamped the house numbering system to be "more simple"; i.e.: a house that had been #78 for forty years was now #12 and so on and so forth.

    The problem is that not everyone bothered to change their numbers to the new system.. so while the house might be registered as 16, 24 etc. it still has #92 on the door.

    So that always makes it interesting when trying to find a house you've never been to before.

    On top of that, some of our streets don't even have signs, or have the wrong sign pointing at them. We live off a merge from 'main' but the sign for Main points to our street. .. yup, because that totally makes sense!

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  10. oh please go with the logo/watching you option. i can only imagine the stories you could share.

    and believe it or not, we have addresses painted on the curb in michigan too...despite the snow.

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  11. I live in the land of Panthers and I'd definitely suggest option 2.

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  12. Do the blog logo. I'll be easier to stalk you.

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  13. Numbers on the curb! I didn't even notice I missed that.

    How about a large eye and under it in fancy calligraphy "we're watching you"

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  14. I'm thinking the second choice is better. Why not advertise the blog.

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  15. go with the panthers plaque.

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  16. I agree with D4...get the blog logo done as a sign :)

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  17. Get one with Chris Hanson's face and the words, "I'm legally obligated to tell you..."

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  18. Dude. Seriously. There are ENOUGH of those dudes in this city already.

    I want to scare the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons away, not get the torches and pitchforks drawn against me!

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  19. I'm for the second option surrounded by blinking Christmas tree lights. In addition, you should get motion detector flood lights, which light up the area in front of your house. That way when someone approaches your front door they will feel appropriately special.

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  20. Hmmm I posted a comment but don't see it yet - hope it went through. I suggested second option with Christmas tree lights plus some additional pizazz just to make your guest feel special.

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  21. It's like that in Arizona, too. ALL brown. The entire state.

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  22. Definitely the latter of the two. How cool would that be?

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