My first DIY project....

My beautiful barn style door that
 I'm working on.

So after the 6 weeks I've had away from blogging over the Christmas/school holiday's I'm back and I'm ready for what 2013 has to offer. It's hard to believe that January is almost over and we are inching closer and closer to the end of another year. There isn't much changing here this year. Caelan is in Year 3, Mackenna is off to pre Prep and my other two cherubs will be at home with mummy but we're looking into having Viveca attend day care one day a week so that she can further develop her social skills.

I had grand plans of doing a few projects during the holiday session however things don't always go the way you want them to so you just need to adjust and refocus your attention. This year I'm hoping that I'll be able to focus more of my attention on decorating this house, spending time with the children and thinking up new things to blog about. Now to blog I need things to share so I thought it was about time that I started working on a project that I've been wanting to do for about four months now.

Over the weekend I pulled out the old barn door that I got from a lovely lady who was advertising it on  Gumtree four months ago. I paid $30 for it and Mr Opoes doesn't know why I wanted an old door when we don't really need another one. The reason I purchased the door was because it was made from timber and it isn't hollow like the internal doors you can purchase from the local hardware store. I have plans of making something out of it BUT first I have to remove all the hardware and then there is 47 years of paint that also needs removing. Yeah.

So I thought I'd share some pictures with you so that you can see what I'm working with.

 

The first thing piece of hardware off
was really easy.



Part 2 these need removing because they are SHARP

Simple slot screw to remove.

Had to use paint stripper due to the amount of paint.

FINALLY I removed the screw and by this stage
it was too late to do anything else.

In the interest of keeping it real it took me nearly two hours to remove the seven phillips screws from the bottom of the door. Next I tried to remove the slotted screws but I experienced a heap of problems so I made a trip to the local hardware shop to buy a couple of items to remove the eight slotted screws from the metal hinge plate. Back at home I removed two of them, sprayed the other screws with CRC and left it overnight. Unfortunately the CRC didn't help and I wasn't able to loosen any of the other six screws. I then applied my Orange paint stripper, left it 20 minutes and the removed most of the paint from around the screws. My next plan is to spray WD-40 and try adding a little heat from my blow dryer to see if this will help with the removal process. I know that I have a bit of a rust issue to work with and then there is also the issue of the paint. I'm also going to try to strip some more of the paint from off the metal hinges.

I'll give you more of an update as I progress on this project especially as its not going to be as easy as I'd hoped. I'm hoping to get this all finished within the next few months so that I can surprise Mr Opoes with my DIY skills. I had hoped to have finished it in time for Valentines Day but it looks like it'll take me quiet some time to complete the job successfully.

Megan