Good luck with your problem. I tried to find out about a product that was a wood cap made of Brazilian Curupay here about 2 months ago. Not one responder. The product needs to be maintained by staining regularly but looks wonderful to me. Don't know if it holds up or has any problems. It was featured on an episode of This Old House a while back and I googled till I found it. It was at ecoarbordesigns.com. This is not and endorsement because I have not yet purchased any. Wish I could find a site where someone has.

While our pool cures, we are having the deck and other cement work done, it will be stamped concreate,,, now, what is the best thing to do, stain it? paint it? or coat it? we live in So. Cal and summer temps average 100-1005 and lots and lots of sun, so fading is a consideration. We have heard that Kool-Coat peels,,, is that true? Thanks for any help!

Hi Scott, Yeah, I thought of that, but we sanded off sticky residue on a sub floor once, and it totally gummed up the sander. This residue stays moist due to the heat and water it is exposed to. DH said scrape it, but I am afraid of doing damage to the wood. I was hoping someone might have had some experience in a product or chemical that would remove the glue. Regarding the latex paint - I am thinking it won't hold up with all the moisture. Whatever we do, I really don't want to have to be doing it again the next year. I'd like it to last a few years. I told DH that I just want to put peel and stick vinyl tile over it - I was thinking we could even put it over the glue since we want it sticky anyway. And, I was thinking we wouldn't even have to remove the other vinyl. The only thing is that the deck is only 21" wide, and most tiles are 12" square, so we would end up having to purchase twice the amount of tile to cover it. Lynne

Hiya! Well, I lean the most toward doing a backsplash in the kitchen, which would eliminate having to do a paint colour that is probably out of your comfort zone on the walls. That doesn't mean you can do a cool/gray tile, but I would look at a travertine which is a beautiful stone. This means that the remaining wall space will be a 'bit' removed from directly connecting with the countertop and might give you a wink more flexibility (but not tons...). You might need to listen to the particular needs of this kitchen and then transition out to your comfort zone in the other rooms, creating more of a palette - think of it on the large scale, rather than just this one room. OF the cool undertones, I would say that the cabinets, in a few photos, look like a neutral with a green undertone (like JUST barely). You could check out the likes of SW Gossamer Veil, it's a bit of a chameleon and might flex between the needs of your kitchen and your personal tastes. You could also look at BM Natural Linen, which is more of a tan that leans a wink grayish.