UFO Landing at Robinhood's Hideaway

Both LD and I have been lusting over the George Nelson Bubble Lamps for a long time.  Unfortunately (or rather fortunately), our house came with a bunch of cool light fixtures and we could not justify replacing any of them.  About the only light fixture we were not very fond of was the one in the sunroom, but we were not sure about how the light fixture would do in a room that is neither heated or cooled.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing Craigslist and came across an ad for a George Nelson saucer lamp at a decent price.  I thought for sure it would be gone by the time I contacted the seller, but amazingly it was not.  We settled on a price, and a couple of days later we picked up our new light fixture.

It sat in the box for about a couple of weeks before we finally got around to installing it.  We had been busy, but I think subconsciously we were both afraid of placing such a nice lamp in an unheated room.  The minute we flipped the switch, however, all of our worries were forgotten.

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.