So we have been on holiday…

This article has been waiting almost half a year to be posted, but finally – there it is!

It is such a pleasure for us to look back at these hot and nice days, especially today, during this freezing cold winter time (it was 5 degrees below zero today). These memories give me strength to wait till next summer, when I can again enjoy beautiful hot weather and splendid company.

So, at the time we have been on holiday….

As always there was not enough time to make everything happened the way we would like it.

The holiday destination was our hundred year old country house in a remote part of Poland. House like this gives you a thousand potential DIY projects to choose from, but this time we wanted to make a chance for trying our new power toy we bought – Bosch Professional Belt Sander. Restoring an old kitchen door seemed to be a good idea.

The door divides kitchen and bedroom and, being the same age as the house, was crying for better look. It was covered with many layers of oil paint and the colour was probably white on the beginning. Our vision was to bring back the door to a natural bear wood as it was at the very beginning.

We started the work with a naive enthusiasm of beginners, and very soon we hit the first wall – the children. Sharing the time between them and the restoration works was not easy at all. Actually, few hours after we started, it seemed to be impossible to continue.

Luckily – we had a secret weapon: our good friend Andy. Only him combined with the new power toy had let us complete the holiday project.

Our plan was to try out the Bosh Sander, however we had to start with bare hands, as the toy, I mean the TOOL, was yet to deliver.

So we started the way of ancient craftsmen, using good old hand scrappers (you can see them at the picture above, with the red handles).

Well, let me say that it was effective but not efficient way of doing things. It took a week to remove old paint, and it was very heavy manual job for two men working all day long.

And it was only the beginning. The next step was sanding and smoothing all the damage we did with the scrappers. The old wood was partially dry-rotten, half eaten by woodworms and sharp scrappers’ blades tended to scratch deep a soft structure of the wood.

As you can see on the pictures the most difficult part was cleaning the moldings and areas between them in the middle parts of the door. The sander finally arrived but the belt was too wide for the narrow parts, and simply could not get there.

The only way was to do it manually (again) which took the second week to bring the door to its original beauty.

The most pleasant part was at the end. We impregnated the door with a coconut oil.

After the oil treatment the door got a beautiful deep shade which was much more than adorable.

These two weeks were the most precious for us – spending the time with family and friends and the door. We are looking forward to the next summer time when we would like to restore the door’s frame.

We have to add, that without Andy`s helps all the work would be much slower and much less happy. He is our door hero!! Andy, we want to thank you for all the help and your commitment.

And this is what we end up with – the second life of a hundred year old door.