For those of you who have read my D-I-Why! Blog you will know that I lack the attributes of a skilled DIYer!
I am generally “willing” but that’s where it ends.
We’ve been in our house for 25 years and I’ve always shied away from over-extending my limited DIY ability. That changed this spring when I challenged myself to "do the house up".
Now, this started well. I successfully painted a few tired bits around the house and even ordered a new carpet to be laid (admittedly not DIY as I didn’t lay it myself). I did rip out the old carpet and prepare the room for the fitter though. I even removed the door and sanded this down, repainted and rehung the door. The room looked pretty good and I considered this a success.
Sadly, it didn’t end there. The problem was..my wife! Sorry to her for that comment but it’s true! She said “This looks really good but I think we should also update the French Doors”. Obviously, by "we"… she meant me!
These doors were a wooden style stained in a mahogany red varnish. “Good idea” I replied and with my new vigour for DIY proceeded to remove the doors and prepare them for their sanding down.
I thought the sanding went quite well, that is apart from the quick trip to the hardware store to buy another sander… They don’t make them like they used to…! Sanding is an interesting activity. I have to say, the clobber you need is significant. Obviously, there is the sander but also the ear defenders, goggles and face mask (sadly, we are all too accustomed to wearing a mask…). It takes ages to get everything on and ready - it’s a right faff! I even had to buy most of the stuff as I started with the Covid mask, swimming goggles and headphones…. Not very good and I looked a complete state, my son and daughter both burst out laughing when they saw me!!
Anyway, once I’d got all the right gear on, breathing like Darth Vader. I sanded down and repainted both doors. I felt pretty proud of myself as I looked at my nice white doors - oh and nursed my sore thumbs from working on those hard to reach edges around the windows where the sander had struggled. Once all the paint was dry, I peeled off the masking tape I’d used to protect the windows from the paint and rehung the doors. Then stood back to fully admire my work.
It looked good to me!
There was a short pause. “Oh” said my wife. “Oh what?” I replied.
“The glass. Have you seen the glass?”
As I peered more closely, I saw what can only be described as upturned V’s almost like hundreds of little peaks all over the glass. Out of a total of 20 panes across the two doors, 16 of them were pretty much destroyed!
Clearly in my urgency to sand the doors down quickly, I had been a little heavy handed with the sander, which had ‘jumped’ to the glass again and again and again, on so many occasions it had left hundreds of ‘the end of the sander shaped’ scratches across nearly all the panes. It was a disaster!
As my two kids decided to come in to the room at exactly the same time this disaster was being played out, they simply said in unison “DIY Dad strikes again, and again, and again”. And then disappeared off laughing as they went!!
Being very aware of my failing… I even took some time to try and rectify the issue, searching on YouTube for the best way to get scratches out of glass. I tried toothpaste (the white type not any coloured one, apparently that won’t work). I tried polish, even gave the wire wool option a try attached to the drill for greater speed and efficiency.
None of them worked!
So the resolution was found by my wife - two new doors in the online shopping basket. “They’ll be delivered tomorrow and they are fully prepared” she shouted out to me. Followed by “You are not going to fit them yourself are you…?”.
Again, will I ever learn - should have got someone in!
Good luck to all those attempting something this coming weekend. Worth getting a back up plan or at least something in the basket ready to go!
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