I like the effect a lot but it looks a bit washed out and I'm not sure if that bothers me or not.

Very nice effect...looks like a painting on the canvas (I'll bet that's what you were aiming to do :-) ) On my monitor it looks like it has a blue cast to it. Maybe that is intentional.. My eye still likes the more saturated versions...but that's me....and not a nit. It's still a neat shot no matter how you look at it.