Painting the Rusty Electricity Meter Box

The meter box looked terrible - rust had come through the paint and made the house look dirty. First job was to get rid of the rust. We used "Tergo Rust Killer" rust remover and metal conditioner. Next we primed it with grey British Paints "Galvanised Iron Primer Prepcoat". Finally we gave it two coats of Dulux "Epsom Double" using a test pot - it wasn't the right colour. So we did another two coats of "Shortland Street" again using a sample pot. Much better.

Only problem is now it makes the rest of the house look terrible - we will be painting the front of the house, the black window sills and door; and the paverandah railings; and polyurathaning the door next.

Painting the Verandah

Glen and I laboured for a few days stripping the paint from the veranda. There were five layers of paint that had to be stripped. The previous owners had given the verandah a 'lick of paint' to sell the house - and this thin layer had all but peeled off. We used a heat gun but found it was very slow and laborious. The quicker but more expensive option was chemical paint stripper - this was amazing and sped up the job considerably.

The picture above is Glen and Emily (4yrs) painting the second coat of undercoat onto the verandah.

The paint used we used was especially for decks (not like the previous owners who obviously put exterior wall paint on the deck). We were told it would last 10 years - here is hoping!!

The first colour we chose looked like the original colour of the verandah until we actually painted it - I thought it looked too light in the paint tin - but the storeman assured me it would dry darker. As rookies Glen painted the whole deck and then we decided was too green/grey and looked insipid against the cream of the house. Lesson: buy a test pot first and check!!! We went to Mitre 10 and they kindly added some tint to make it more brown and the result was much better. Two coats later of the new improved colour and we were finished!

The finalised paint tint was:

Resene
Talisman

The Saga of the Hole in the Verandah

Corrie put his foot through it!! The rimu tongue and groove planks had survived 150 years of foot traffic - and one lovely very large Maori put his foot through it - the result - a hole in one plank! What to do? We tried sourcing the exact wood - but you can't source that width and thickness anymore! We tried the specialist shop "Bungalows and Villas" in Morningside. The wood available was the right width - but it was pine and untreated and around 3mm too thin and would be an open invitation for someone just to put their foot through it again!

Finally, Les (ex-hubby) kindly offered his assistance and came around to sort the problem out. He suggested plywood - treated. We decided on the plywood but thought that it was kind of sacrilege; using a 'substandard' material ie not native timber - but it is the 'green' option; the ply is strong and hopefully because the verandah is painted anyway the type of wood becomes irrelevant. Les came up with the brillant idea of using the circular saw to make grooves in the ply to make it look like the original 'tongue and groove'. It worked!! Brilliant thinking!!

Once the old tongue and groove was removed from the veranda (one metre long - the pathway to the door had been weakened by continued use) another problem emerged. The roots of the cherry blossom tree had toppled over the piles supporting the house - making the verandah unlevel. The rain, as a result, had been flowing towards the house creating dampness and subsequently rotted the supporting beam holding the veranda up. Les replaced this beam and fixed the piles - making the veranda level again...