Grout, Pecky Cypress, and Sunroom

Kitchen Backsplash

We had a pretty productive week and weekend. The kitchen backsplash has grout and caulk; all we have to do now is seal the grout.

LD finished the paint touch-ups around the cabinets and caulked the window in our dining nook. She now needs to paint the trim around the windows. She wanted to install the Ikea lighting beneath the cabinets, but unfortunately we purchased the wrong electrical cords. I guess those will have to wait until our next trip to Ikea, or we might order them online.

Pecky Cypress in Family Room
We sanded the pecky cypress wall in the winter, but did not apply a topcoat because we could not decide what product to finish it off with. After much deliberation, we decided on MinWax urethane. It was definitely not my preferred choice because of the VOCs, but in the end the UV protection and resistance to moisture placed it on top. I managed to brush two coats this weekend and considering a third.

The wall came out looking more rustic than I expected. The funny thing was that I was just telling LD that I would love to have an organic element in that room. However, I was thinking more along the lines of a "rustic" piece of furniture, but I guess the house had other plans. Because the wall is so "rustic", we might have to select furniture that is more modern to balance things out.

I'm glad we were able to put the topcoat on the pecky cypress because it gave us a chance to evaluate the two built-in cabinets in the space. For the built-in next to the fireplace we are considering white lacquer for the base and a dark stain for the top. It will be a bit challenging because the wall appears "red" or "rust" colored. We are not sure what to do with the built-in cabinets nearest the kitchen. I think we will wait for the house to "speak" to us again. However,

we are totally open to ideas.

Sunroom
I finally tore out the last of the nasty 40+ year old carpet in the sunroom. We are still inconclusive about the type of floor to put in the room. LD really likes the idea of green slate, but I am really concerned about the weight because the sunroom is only supported by two steel posts. She thinks it will be just fine because the previous owner had a pool table in there.

Today we went to scope out some flooring options. We looked at the SnapStone tile and the new Konecto. But what really seemed to be the winner (for now) are the Shaw carpet tiles. We really liked the Haven pattern in the urchin color, and the Reed pattern in the mangrove color.

We love the fact that the Shaw carpet tiles are eco-friendly, low VOC, EcoWorx tile. We get the samples next week, so we will see how it works in the room.