:)I think you have RABWITARTTD Syndrome (retired and bored with increased time and reduced things to do). I do not consider it a debilitating condition and have spent many an hour, ok sometimes days, developing, building, modifying, rearranging things that are best left alone. ;)
I generally find I have broken, lost, or changed something irreplaceable at some point in my "improvement".
Now if it was me I would have built a fork like attachment for my drill and used that to spin the nuts off.
Cleaning the threads of the bolt being the last thing I would try.
Neat job and a satisfying out come. :)
