aurigus

My wife and I are looking into a moving to a new place in the next few months. We found this great spot, beautiful location, lots of room, large deck. The price is right. It is basically an apartment above the garage of the main house; and my wife know's the owner through her work. Previously; it was the place where the landlord's mother lived, but it was upstairs and she couldn't do the steps.

The one thing, that is really bugging me, is that it shares a mailbox with the main house. She said it is a shared mailbox, I'm guessing that means the mail is delivered to it and then you just pick your mail out.

I started thinking about this; it isn't really that great. I think I expect a certain amount of privacy in the mail and this just wouldn't cut it. Some things are delivered that you just don't want others to know about.

We thought about getting a PO Box which we might do. But, I was wondering, why not get a 2nd address for this new place? What is involved in getting a new address at an existing location? I googled it and checked out usps.com, couldn't find much on the subject. So, just for this, and future knowledge; how does one go about getting a new mailing address? For example if you build your own home. Do you pay for it or is it free?

And second of all, are we being too paranoid about this kind of thing? I would think anyone would want a separate mailbox rather than sharing with the landlord.