Lol, we live on "Maple" Lane, the house immediately next to us has a different street address, say "Oak" Lane. Behind them, there are two more houses on a gravel road, also with the "Oak" address. To the right of the house next to us, there are two more houses, also on a gravel road. Their address is "Maple Lane", same as ours.
The gang of three mailboxes next to our driveway serves our house on "Maple", the "Oak" neighbors next to us, and the second "Maple" neighbors down the gravel lane.
Across the street and down a ways in the wrong direction, there is another gang of three mailboxes. It serves the two back houses on "Oak", and the first house on the "Maple" gravel Lane. Confused yet?
The city has installed a very good sign, but the whole concept of this street, that street, this street all on the same side of the same street is just too confusing.
in addition, there is a footpath that connects "Maple" Lane to another segment of "Oak" Lane, but it's inaccessible to vehicles. It's a pedestrian shortcut to school and public transit. Not all GPS systems know that.
Our garage has a street-facing door that once served as the front door. Sometimes packages get thrown there, despite the fact that we've locked the footpath gate to redirect all traffic down the driveway, towards the actual (very large) front door.
We always watch for drivers who seem confused and try to help them out, especially delivery drivers. We go outside and offer assistance. DH painted very large house numbers on our curb, as big as would fit on the side of the curb, which helps somewhat.
And yet, one day this week, a driver dropped a mailing bag at our doorstep, cardboard box in his other hand. I noticed the bag promoted a children's clothing brand and instantly called him back. The first neighbor on the gravel road of the same name (but actually two houses down) has a new baby. The box in the driver's other hand was for us and the baby package for them. Sigh.
We have all our important mail delivered to a Post Office Box. It is absolutely worth the extra cost.
EDITED TO ADD: Despite the mess described above, we'd do it again in a heartbeat. We chose this house because it suited our blended family's needs, because it's custom-built (not for us) with a lovely floor plan and best of all, DH can walk to work, which has been priceless. He even gets a small stipend for not driving, which more than covers the cost of the PO Box and the trips across town to pick up the mail.
