This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
#firstworldproblems warning…
Some months ago we got the front of our house resided, and in the process our house numbers were destroyed. We decided to not to replace them immediately, so we put a piece of paper in the window that prominently displayed the numbers. That way, delivery persons could find us as our street isn’t sequential, for some reason. (We’re 415 but there is no 413 nor 417.)
This was such a non-issue, in our minds, that we forgot about it. In all honesty the piece of paper wasn’t even necessary because the delivery people on our route are familiar with us, as we ship out and receive deliveries so often. Really no one has come to our house in the past year that would be confused by a lack of house numbers. However, I’d totally understand if USPS, UPS, Fed Ex and even ambulance and police forces refused us service on the grounds that our house could be difficult to find without the numbers.
However, today I received a notice of a code violation. Apparently there’s a whole code about displaying house numbers! The numbers must be prominently and conspicuously displayed near the main entrance. It must contain arabic numerals no less than three inches in length, must be a contrasting color to the background, and must be clearly visible and easy to read from the street.
Oh, oops I thought, had I written the numbers too small? Nope. I measured them, and they were 5 inches. I knew they were visible from the street, as I’d made sure of that when I put it up there (just incase a delivery person was looking for the house). And being thick black marker on white paper, it was contrasting.
So where’s the code violation? And is it fair that this code even exists in the first place? What if I were concerned about privacy? I know you can opt to have your house blurred in things like Google Street View, but you don’t get a warning that they’re putting pictures of your house up, so it can be months before you even realize you need to have your house blurred.
Bah. Anyway, I decided to carry through with something I’d thought about doing (back when the numbers were broken). Making house numbers with Perler Beads. Well, I used Biggie Beads to be exact.
(Yes, I ironed it on the boards. I’m horrible, I know. I did ruin one of the boards >.<)
Are those colors contrasting enough for you, town?