Glad it finally worked. The diodes should not be much of an issue. You can take them off with a self-heated desoldering pump (e.g.Vellemann VTDESOL3), which also empties the holes and normally leaves the solder pads in place. New diodes are really cheap to order (I always order some additional ones and keep several types in my DIY box). If you might later want to try different ones it is always a good idea to not solder them directly to the PCB but to use sockets in between.