Three Teenage Daughters and a Mini-Eichler Mailbox

When the Vinci family moved into their Eichler home in Thousand Oaks two years ago, it needed lots of work. Jim Vinci, a structural engineer, enlisted the family—including his three teenage daughters, who were soon installing drywall and tile.

It seems they just couldn’t stop.

At Christmas, Cassandra, Elizabeth, and Meghan presented their parents with an entirely new Eichler—only a tad smaller. In fact, it was a spitting image of the family home. They’d built and painted it themselves, “plexiglass and all,” Jim says.

“I was a little nervous,” he says, “because it wasn’t Post Office-approved.” But the mailman kept delivering, and the neighbors applauded.

The neighborhood already had some spiffy mailboxes—though no reproduction homes, Vinci notes. “Eichlers need unique mailboxes because the standard mailbox doesn’t look right,” he says.