Marking My Territory

When we bought our house it had a little sign above the door with the house number on it.  It looked a bit like an afterthought.  Last spring, before we got the house painted, I took the sign down and cleaned up the area so that there would be no trace of it. 

Before I threw out the old sign I took the numbers off, painted them "Hammered Brass" (this made the numbers match the hardware on the door) and glued them on our red mailbox, next to the red front door. You couldn't read the numbers unless you were at the front door. 

A few months after the house was painted my doorbell rang and a man in a uniform - a "So & So" Pest Extermination Service uniform - stood there smiling.  He told he was done and he would see me next month.  I was surprised.  Asked him what he had 'done' and sort of panicked when he told me he had 'serviced' my house. I'm not sure what the expression on my face was but he must have gotten a little scared because he said, as he looked at my red mailbox with the brass colored numbers, "This is 4916, right?" Wrong. That house is next door. Then he waved a quick goodbye to me and told me to enjoy my free service. Ugh...

I don't want to kill all the bugs at my house. There is at least one gecko in the bathroom and butterflies everywhere outside, I like most 'wildlife.'

Before you tell me I should sue, face it, I brought this on myself by not having my house clearly marked.

And then there was this year with it's early arriving hot, hot weather and drought. Once it got hot the numbers just started to fall off.  In a matter of days, my poorly marked house became an unmarked house.

I slipped into a holding pattern and didn't do anything this summer. Here it is autumn and I want to finish this job.  I need to put the house numbers back on the house - somewhere. There's probably a city ordinance that says "Thou Shalt..."


I was looking at older homes in the city and noticed some of them have their house numbers made out of tile in the steps up to the house.

We've got one step, I think I could make this work.... maybe it's time to go shopping.

(Like I need a reason.)