Cockpit side curves

We've had a small debate about the curves between the aft deck and the cockpit sides.  As described earlier, I made these out of 3/8" x 3/8" cedar strips formed around curves in the frames and a couple of curved support blocks.  These strips were glued together and held in place with staples while the epoxy set.  I really only used cedar because it was easy to work with and is rot resistant.  I had intended to glass and paint over this whole area.  


To make a long story short, my kids think that I should not paint over the curved sections and instead should just varnish this area.  They think that it would be a nice continuation of the (natural cedar) cabin top.  I agree with them, but to go with this look I have to remove a whole lot of staples (probably a couple hundred), most of which are under a layer of epoxy.    I've decided to give in on this - it will probably take several hours to get them all out, but it will probably be worth it.  Of course I need to do this soon because I'm not too far away from glassing the entire deck.