Remind me never to volunteer to make a door at home. My garage isn’t big enough to work on it. But in the lead up to the April weekend I managed to get the back door together, which saved everyone else a bit of time. So, kudos to me!

We were scrapping around a bit for wood now. Supplies were getting a bit low, but all the material was sourced and cut to size. I and some colleagues chiselled out the recesses for the cross-braces, which wasn’t too difficult. Getting them to fit snugly was the tricky bit, as all the wood was slightly warped. We cheated a bit, and temporarily screwed the door together while the glue dried. Then the screws were removed, the holes drilled through completely, and dowels inserted. Then I spent an age, smoothing off two front doors with a plane and a (kindly loaned) belt sander.

They looked infinitely better with all that extra elbow-grease exerted. There were a few moans of “we’re not doing cabinet making” but I felt it made them look more akin to Longhall doors, rather than shed doors!

The two finished doors, were hung during the May weekend.

Jolly nice they look to, and very proud we were too, what with Byan Hicks’s ironwork doing a pukka job.

While the doors were tinkered with, I took a few quiet moments to trial fit the carved boards in place, just to see if they would fit. Fortunately they did! And much admired they were too – and a few pictures were taken with their proud creator standing beneath.

All I then had to do, was decide how to fit them in place (I drilled a few pilot holes through the boards to assist this process later on).

Before I could finally fit them, they had to be painted. At least I would get any complaints at home, of noises coming from our(my) garage!

At least I had a month finish them. Or at least until the boards in the triangular section had been rebated and put in.