The Late, Great Home Improvement Post

I do believe this will officially be the longest photo-post ever in the history of Madsen Madness. I've been so very absent lately, I thought that the three of you who read my blog on a semi-regular basis might like to know what I've been up to...so here ya go. My new house, in all its glory.


Casa de Madsen! Though this house was not a foreclosure, it was a short sale, so it had been empty for about six months. A lot can decay in six months, let me tell ya. We've mowed the yard, but that's about it so far for work on the outside of the house. We need to trim up and yank out a few more bushes. It's on the very long to-do list.

Do you dig the old carpet and carpet padding on the front porch. We are classy people.

I have always wanted a yellow laundry room! We had a yellow laundry room when I was a kid in Moab, Utah. Hey siblings, do any of you remember that? It was HUGE! Mine is little, but it is lovely in all its antique yellow glory.



The pool. I could kick myself for not getting a 'before' picture of this. Let me paint a picture for you...it was green and mossy and at one time had a dead mouse floating in it. This is a BIG improvement.


This is the living room BEFORE we got a hold of it. I hired a guy to paint it and scrape and re-texture the popcorn/cottage cheese ceilings. It was SPONGE painted. Now, I think sponge painting definitely had its day, and I'm sorry if I offfend any sponge paint lovers out there, but it is just NOT my thing. The carpet was old and very stained and dirty.


The living room AFTER. Ta-da! Painted a lovely shade called 'cup of cocoa' and hardwood laminate floors installed by my darling Matt and our friends for LIFE, Kurt, Skyler and Anthony. I haven't done much decorating, but I love it already! It's a great room for voice lessons - nice acoustics!

This is still a work in progress - the baby room. For the baby we are patiently waiting to get. Lucky baby!!

Also a work in progress. The game room. This is one of the five bedrooms upstairs. We'll have a spare bed for visitors (hint hint!) and a TV with all the video game systems here. Otherwise known as boy heaven.

Yes, this is Dylan's room. It was ALREADY PAINTED PURPLE. He actually likes it! My friend Sue and I have grand plans to turn this into a black and white room. Most likely in the next month or so.

Zack's room! He loves this room, and I do too. The striping was quite time consuming, but totally worth it. The horizontal stripe goes all around the room and there are vertical stripes like these on each wall. So cool!

Where all the magic happens, baby. Sue and I painted this room as well. The entire room use to be that gold color you see on the top. I love how it looks with the bedding.

This is the BEFORE picture of the living room. Not bad. Just wanted to warm up the colors a little bit.

After! This is still a work in progress, but we love it so far. The color we used is called "whispering wheat." It makes me happy.

Here are the kitchen cabinets before we started painting the kitchen. Now, I know they weren't hideous or anything, but I really didn't like the kitchen much at all. Til we painted it...

Black!! And now I love it! It's very retro looking.

Here is our very high tech painting process. Spray paint, baby. We were high on paint fumes for days.

Fuel for painting. Sonic made a lot of money off me.

Here is the hutch that I bought off of Craigslist for $120.00. It had been quite neglected. Sue, Monique and I plopped it into the back yard in the old house and got to spraying it.

Here is what it looked like before. Not pretty.

Here is what it looks like now. Pretty! And great storage, too! We had planned on installing more cabinets here, which would have cost us about $800.00 to do ourselves. This cost us $120.00 and six cans of spray paint. Much better. We painted the wall red, too.

One of my favorite features. The lovely toilet seat in the downstairs half-bath. I bought a new one, and so far it is sitting there right next to this one, waiting for Matt to install it. I just can't bring myself to take this one off. For some reason it freaks me out. Dylan says he thinks the creatures on here just might be real. I think he might be right.

And there you have it! I have been a busy girl. More home improvement posts will be coming. Now I've gotta go paint something!

Easing Back Into Blogging...

It's hard to believe that it has been nearly a MONTH since my last blog post! To be honest, it has really been a wonderful little break. Stepping away from the blog-world has been a good thing. I have to remember to pay a little more attention to the real-life small people who scatter past as I type away on the computer.

And so -I'm easing my way back into blogging. We just returned from a lovely 8-day trip to Newport Beach with the entire the Madsen clan, and I will be posting many beautiful beach and cousin pictures later this week. Tons o' fun.

Meanwhile, a little something for the shopaholics...the Barn has come up with another must-have home decor item for me. I love these keys, don't you?

They are going to look great on the picture wall in our new house! (Did I mention we bought a house? Moving in two weeks...details to come.) I think I might have to order these babies...

Ahh, it's good to be back!

Signs of Spring

SPRING is on the way at Madsen Ranch! How do I know?

NO COATS needed for school today...

Flowers are bloomin'...


Grass is greenin'...


...and "popcorn" is poppin'!


oh, and Dylan keeps bringing me "flowers" in from the yard :o)