The year our driveway moved zip codes

It’s true. It’s bizarre. And it happened the first year we moved into the house we currently live in–we had to actually move our driveway which forced a zip code change.

Side note: this also necessitated a post office change, meaning I had all new carriers. Fortunately, I’ve loved all of my postal workers. They’re awesome.

We live on two-thirds of an acre which was part of a former orange grove. It’s a very oddly shaped and unique piece of property. There’s only one way onto the property and that’s the driveway. We’re land-locked. Shortly after we moved in, we were sent us a letter to “remove” our encumbrance, a.k.a our driveway. To get to our house, we had had to drive on a small portion of the canal then onto our driveway. Our driveway “hooked” onto the canal drive, leading to our house. Suddenly, there was a problem with this setup despite being like that for years. Our house was built in the 1950’s. It’s much larger than the original grove house which still sits on the corner (That was built in the 1920’s). I don’t want to get into all the details about the who, what, why because that’s not the point of the story. The point is, there was a problem and we had to fix it.

How did we fix it? We were lucky, that’s how. The house on the other side of our block wall (next door to the original grove house) had been sitting empty because the neighbors moved to a one story. They moved because their geriatric mother needed a one-level house, and were they in the process of remodeling their original house (things were torn up but not redone). One spouse wanted to return to that house and the other didn’t…so the remodel was dragging. They didn’t want to put an easement on their property because contractors were looking at buying it and they felt having one would make it harder to sell. So, we wound up buying that house, doing a split lot (meaning we deeded a strip of that property over to our property) and eventually sold the house after some remodeling.

Our driveway now had an entrance on a different street which you can see in the pic above. We’re not on the corner of the block but set back (remember, “weird shaped property” and the “original grove house” is on the corner). Our old entrance off of the arterial was one zip code and our new entrance on the residential street was a different one. Hence, our driveway “moved” and changed zip codes. Magic. ✨

It really wasn’t however, the end was result was. It’s a better situation but sure took a lot of doing on our part and was a money bleed. I still wished that I sent out “moving” cards when I informed everyone of our new address:

We didn’t move but our driveway did!

Kind of sounds like one of those Old English riddles. This is an older pic because the mailbox is still green.

I suppose all the little things I entertain myself with are ending up here in some form, but there you have it. Shenanigans at its best. On sooo many levels.