Mr. Sandman

He's been busy - the sweet, handsome love of my life. On Friday afternoon he came home pulling this monstrous contraption behind his truck.
From then on, breaking only for sleep and a pancake breakfast, he's been beautifying the old beams in the future kitchen. If you, recall, it looked like this before:


A sooty, messy fireplace that we had unwalled... Twelve layers of paint on every painted surface, included doors with antique hardware, 200+ year old stairs, etc. All just waiting for my Mr. Sandman. Here he is below in his superhero Sandman costume: And the magical wonders he performed on that fireplace:

And on the 1791 ceiling beams that we want to leave exposed in the new kitchen/old keeping room...

The wires up there belong to lights that we were trying out. We liked how they fit up in between the beams and so they'll stay.


Take a look at those stairs. They are steep and lead to some unheated upstairs/to be gutted rooms. They were most recently painted an unflattering gray and white with plastic non-stick thingies glued on.

Aren't they purty now? Just awaitin' my hand sander and some poly. Those fancy speckles all over the treads is the sand from my Mr. Sandman's sandblaster.
"Do you want me to replace some of these treads?" the sandman asked. "Some of them look worn down..."
He must of sensed the heat from my glaring because he turned around.
They are two hundred and sixteen years old. I think they've earned the right to look worn! I love them.

Here is some more of the sand all over. Sean also sandblasted the door in the background which leads to the future master bedroom.
I think he started out with four hundred pounds of sand. I'll have to ask how much he went through. The sandblaster came with his own supersuit, as seen in one of the first photos, with a separate air hose for Sean. It sounded like a jet was landing in the new kitchen while in use. My Dad and lovely Stepmom were here visiting and suddenly the air began to look cloudy and taste... sandy?
Even thought the rest of the house is closed off from where Sean was working his magic, that sand and dust went EVERYWHERE.
The kids and I took off for Panera and Target for the evening. After a sweeping, vacuuming and mopping, the dining room is back to normal. I thought drywall plaster sand was bad...

Enough of my messy, dusty house... Here is some more beauty brought about by Mr. Sandman.


This door in the new kitchen leads to a cedar closet. We'll be making it into a mudroom connecting to the garage.

Above is that same door before.


Here is the lovely original hardware, ready to be shined up. Love it.

Some more pretty beams. These were incredibly dark before being sandblasted.

Sean was also gracious enough to take off the cellar door and blast away the paint on it for me. It's most recent color was an 80's seagreen. It is a handmade door like the one above and looks great now. Photo to come later, promise.

Edited to add:
Sean says he started off with 1,000 pounds of sand and used about 800.