Skip to main content

Get Off My Lawn

 



I was trying to find someone’s house yesterday in a perfectly lovely neighborhood in Columbia. And I just about gave up and went home.

Beautiful houses, beautiful yards. 

Very few house numbers.

I realize that this is a relatively minute topic to be carping about, but: aren’t dwellings required to have house numbers? 

Perhaps I am wrong about this. Perhaps labeling your house is a free choice activity. Or perhaps we have a surprising number of locals whose homes are enrolled in a witness protection program. 

I did some quick checking this morning. Howard County does have regulations pertaining to house numbers, primarily to aid first responders. That makes sense. I’m curious as to the reasoning behind leaving one’s house unlabeled. It seems like the oddest “you can’t find me” game ever.

People often complain about all the rules in Columbia pertaining to the exterior of one’s home. And there are a lot of them. Color, style, windows, doors, fences…I hate to be the person coming along and adding one more thing. 

But since my opinion carries no legal weight, here goes:

House numbers should be big enough to see from the road. The font should be readable rather than decorative. The color should provide adequate contrast to the background. And it would be absolutely thrilling if all house numbers were posted in the same place on each house. 

Bonus: is your house number visible after dark? 

True confession: I live in a neighborhood of quadroplexes. The community signage is pretty terrible. Our house faces sideways so the numbering is not visible from the road and the label itself (came with the house) is black numbers on a brown background.

People get lost regularly trying to find us. I send detailed directions in advance. I have greeted many hapless delivery drivers by walking down to the road in my socks. This is probably why I have fantasized about having a lighthouse in our yard.

For the rest of you - - who live in single-family, detached homes - - would it really kill you to post your house number in an easy-to-read way?

Okay, I’m done being cranky. Do you have any opinions on house numbers? Let me know.


Village Green/Town² Comments





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...
Post a Comment
Read more