2014 Resolutions and Goals

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Britt

As previously discussed, 2013 was a huge year for us (Parts I, II, and III here) here in the House on the Hill. I think I will always look back and smile when I think of all the changes me and mine have gone through, and be glad for the memories. However, as much fun as it is to relive those moments, now is the time to look forward to what lies ahead. Surely 2014 will not be quite as tumultuous as 2013, but I still expect to make lots of memories nonetheless! Here are some of the things I hope to see happen in the coming year.

The Horse
Blah, blah, blah, insert yet another comment about moving up to Novice here. But to get a little more specific, my hope for 2014 is to not only go Novice, but to do so with a final score below 35. So ideally, get a 65% or better on dressage and go double clear in show jumping and cross country. I know time is going to be our biggest issue, so I think I would also be pretty ecstatic if another scenario happened- like a 67% dressage test and a couple time penalties XC. Just being honest! 🙂 At the end of the day though, I will be satisfied with a happy, healthy, and fit horse!

At home, I want to nail our canter transitions (we had some great ones this weekend so this should be entirely possible!) and get our lengthenings solid enough to do a first level test and score in the mid 60s. In order to do this all of our transitions need to be sharp and supple as well, so I will be concentrating on these too.

The House
I pretty much went into this at the end of my accomplishments post, but my main two priorities are the kitchen and the landscaping. We’ve done a lot to the backyard recently (pics to come) but the kitchen will surely be the biggest project of all!

The Rest
Lately I’ve been doing some soul searching, and there are definitely ~~tons of~~ some things I would like to improve about myself. On a purely physical level, I let myself eat poorly over these holidays (who doesn’t?) and want to get back to feeling good about myself and be more in shape. I want to look into calcium supplements and try to decrease my Red Bull intake.

Seriously, it’s a problem.

Then I want to work on my attitude. I’ve always known that I have perfectionist tendencies and somewhat low self esteem, but recently the combination has had a pretty dismal effect on my general outlook. I nitpick at every thing I say or do, and it needs to stop. Waking up the morning after a social interaction and reliving every detail until I find something to feel guilty about is not healthy, and not how I want to live my life. So, I am going to try to be more positive about, and accepting of, myself. I hope in 2014 that I learn to spend more time in the moment and really focus on enjoying the wonderful friends and family I have- I am lucky to be surrounded with beautiful people and there is no reason to be unhappy!

Beautiful (erm, Handsome) on the inside and out- my husband!

I’m sure as the year goes on these goals will change, or become more specific. But for now I feel like these are all attainable with work and dedication! A fit and capable horse, an improved home, and a happy lifestyle are what I hope to cement for myself. I hope you guys will be along for the ride! What resolutions do you guys have for 2014? What changes do you hope to see?

2013 Accomplishments Part II: The House

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Britt

This is a big one all in itself, considering we didn’t even own a house until February. After our harrowing purchasing experience though, here’s what we have done so far (sorry for the picture heavy post!):

New carpet throughout
New paint (inside and outside)

Living room transformation with equestrian theme

Pressure washed stairs
Landscaped Front Entry
New door hardware & accessories

Guest bathroom makeover

Tiled master bathroom floor
Removed wallpaper: kitchen, master bath

No more wallpaper!

New cabinet pulls in kitchen
New fans and light fixtures throughout

Dining Room with paint and chandelier

Finished Carolina and State rooms
Fix fireplace
And oh yeah, start a blog about our house on the hill 🙂

The Carolina Room

Woowhee! Next year I hope we get through some of this list, that we didn’t get to this year…

~~Remove jungle~~ Thin trees in back yard
Landscape front yard
Paint cabinets in kitchen
Granite countertops in kitchen
Tile floors in kitchen
Hell, remodel the entire kitchen
Replace grody couch in living room
In general drive my husband crazy with new decorating ideas

Preparing for madness

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Britt

I had a great lesson Sunday, which I am hoping to post about when I get video from a friend, but until then, I have been running around ~~like a chicken with its head cut off~~ trying to get ready for the ~~invasion~~ guests that will be arriving tomorrow.

These guys, plus 1 more human, plus 1 dog

Don’t get me wrong, I love my family. But no one who has ever met my family would say they were boring. I suppose no one thinks their family actually is boring, but sometimes I feel that the individuals that make up my closest relatives have rather a knack for the unusual. Driving London taxis, hiking the Appalachian Trail, and randomly acquiring new species of animals as pets are just three of the most recent activities I can attribute to them.

My sister used to breed hedgehogs. No joke- this was her ‘stud’ hog

In any case, I am doing my best to prepare the house for the inevitable chaos that is to ensue once our house gains 8 more inhabitants. Luckily this means that I have extra incentive to finish the guest rooms, which look like this to date:

The State Room

The Carolina Room

The Carolina room is lacking a mattress (coming soon) and the State room is lacking paint (what oh what do I paint it??). Our study will also be acting as a guest room, since where else can you put 7 people (and a dog).

Study AKA Man Cave AKA Temporary Guest Room

Otherwise, the turkey is ready in the fridge and soon enough the people will be here. Expect a few days away from the computer while we stuff ourselves silly with Thanksgiving goodness. Until then, have a happy Thanksgiving! and God bless!

Winter Goals for Horse and Home

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Britt

I know, I know, it’s not quite winter yet. But it my mind, when the temperature dips below freezing and the fleece jods come out, it’s winter. So sue me! Here’s what I hope to achieve and have planned around the homestead and in the saddle this season:

The Horse: At Home

Help Foster understand that transitions happen in the bum and not in the neck
Incorporate conditioning day into weekly routine (Jimmy Wofford reference here)
Master Trakehner fences
School coffin combinations
Work on lengthenings (trot and canter)
Possibly introduce flying changes advice here would be welcome!!!

Trakehner, you are mine!

The Horse: Competitions & Schoolings

The Fork (11/17)
Running Start Schooling
Why Not an American Ark Novice CT (12/14 or 1/11)
Why Not an American Ark Novice Horse Trials (2/22)

Running Start schooling over the summer

The House

Take out mini forest and big-mama-jama pine tree in back yard
Hang curtains and ~~for goodness sake~~ paint feet of dresser in Carolina Room
Paint over wallpaper in half bath
Install new light fixtures in master bath
Fix fireplace

I will finally finish those feet, I swear!

The Rest

Read books 6 & 7 of Outlander Series
Cook best Thanksgiving dinner ever
Watch Saving Mr. Banks movie
Find opportunity to play Harry Potter trivia
Design final Invitation Suite for BFF

Get excited!

As you can see, that’s a lot of goals! I am hoping that most of them are small enough so as to be realistic, but it will be interesting to see where we stand next March. Similarly, at the end of the year I intend to go through my previous goals and see what we have accomplished. Most of the time we are so focused on where we can improve, I want to make sure there is time to celebrate what we have done! That’s all for now!

Practice Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Britt

Next month I will be attempting to roast a giant bird and serve what in my head will be a very elegant cornucopia of food to eight hungry people. In preparation for that eventual dining delight, I decided to have a practice dinner with a couple friends.

Playing Suzie-Homemaker in my kitchen!

I have never cooked for more people than Tyler and myself, and I have never had more than just a couple sides. But here is what I made:

Roast Chicken
This was your standard 7 lb roasting chicken from the super market. I don’t do anything crazy to it, besides rub olive oil, garlic salt and pepper into the skin, and make 4 cuts in the skin into which I stuff a knob of butter and a sprig of fresh rosemary. Hot stuffing from the box went into the chicken, and the giblets were turned into gravy.

Creamed Spinach
I love all things skinnytaste, and it is my absolute go-to site for healthy/lightened up recipes that don’t taste like cardboard! Besides the fact that I think I added a little too much nutmeg, this recipe turned out delish! I LOVE spinach!

Green Bean Casserole
This one is a classic Thanksgiving side dish and thankfully oh-so-easy to get ready. After I put the chicken in I got this whipped up and stuck it in the oven at the last minute. I made mine the cheater’s way, using pre-packaged cream of mushroom soup, canned french onions, and cut green beans.

Mashed Potatoes (and gravy)
This is the only dish I gave to the husband to work on. Not only am I somewhat sad to watch with a peeling knife, but it takes a decent amount of strength to mash an entire bag of potatoes! I think I could have sufficed with half the bag for our small dinner party, but it’s good to know he can be useful when the big day comes around and get those muscles moving!

I also made broccoli as a healthier side dish option. All in all I think it turned out to be a good spread of food that touched on a variety of food. While a turkey is obviously a bit bigger than a chicken I think I am confident in not poisoning anyone on Thanksgiving, as well as adding a couple more side dishes (sauteed brussel sprouts, yeast roles, and sweet potato casserole will likely make the menu) without going overboard.

I love Thanksgiving, and am so excited! Anyone else have big plans for Turkey Day?

No news is good news, right?

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Britt

Not much going on in the horse world, as I’ve ridden only once since the last show. While that ride did feel great, I don’t feel over the hump yet. I realized that in my journey to straightness, I have been working less on really bending through our circles, which was highlighted in the judge’s comments. So we worked on plenty of figure-eight’s and balanced transitions incorporating bend. He felt good. Maybe we ~~don’t suck~~ aren’t so bad off after all.

Tonight I may attempt jumping, and see how it goes. The quest to create the scariest jumps ever has culminated in a new monstrosity in the arena, in which the chevron jump had a love child with some barrels and the mixture of plastic and oddness is something I didn’t want to tackle right before the competition. So we will see how tonight goes!

Otherwise we have been busy (as usual) around the house getting the myriad projects I want done accomplished before all of our guests come in a few weeks. Even still, the to-do list is daunting:

Spray paint the doorbell cover to match new hardware
Spray paint the light fixture by the door to match as well
Install new fan in the sun room
Finish painting Carolina Room and hang curtains
Buy new chair for living room
Buy bed for Carolina Room
Paint the annoying piece of wall I missed in the guest bathroom
Figure out why the DVD player doesn’t work in the guest bedroom
Make-over the side table to match the dresser in the Carolina Room
For that matter, paint the darned feet on the dresser!
Get the weed-eater fixed
Apply lattice to outside of sun room

And so on and so forth…

Maybe it doesn’t seem like a huge list, but considering that the husband and I both have 9-5 jobs, a house to keep clean, and oh, not to mention my time consuming horse hobby, finding the time and energy to tackle these projects has been tricky!

Enough with the whining I suppose, let’s get to work!

A fresh coat of paint (!!!)

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Britt

I love painting. It’s the easiest way to make a big impact on anything: a wall, a piece of furniture, a house…

As I might have mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on refinishing a piece for the Carolina Room. The dresser was part of a set that also included 2 side tables, a massive credenza, and one of the ugliest headboards I have seen. All but the latter now reside in our master bedroom, having been refinished before the move. They were quite obviously several decades old and needless to say, needed some help. All that was left is the dresser, as the others are now painted grey and sanded in a shabby-chic type fashion.

So without further ado, here is the dresser before and after:

OK, so the feet aren’t done, but will be soon! Just need to drag in some protective plastic

Behind the dresser you can also see the color I am thinking of painting the walls. It just so happens to be practically identical (as in when you squint you can’t tell a difference) to the color I put in the guest bath. I guess I just love that color! (And sorry honey, that doesn’t make me a Carolina fan!)

The other slightly bigger project that has been going on for the past week has been the house. While also not quite done (a few touch-ups needed here and there), it’s also far enough along that I think I can share it with you.

Drumroll please….

Front of the house in the strong morning light

The back of the house. The light is playing a few tricks with the color, it’s even in person!

Another view of the house closer up

Granted, it’s hard to really get the color right with my iPhone’s camera, not to mention different times of day, but…No more sad grey house! Gone are the horrid blue shutters! Hooray!

A couple small things are still to be done as well, such as spray painting the light fixture by the door and getting a new kickplate. We also received a *lovely* horse head door knocker as a house warming gift that is going up soon!

Next up is the master bath, which has tile going in as we speak. Lots of changes around here!

So, what do you think? Post your thoughts below 🙂

In which Britt complains about Rain

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Britt

Seriously, it stinks. Meaning, I would much rather be out playing with ponies but instead I’m forced inside to tackle more DIY projects around the house. Right now we’ve got two projects going on, making over a dresser to go in the ‘Carolina Room’ (Oh, you didn’t know we have rooms named after universities?) and the other is the removal of the oh-so-nineties wallpaper from our master bathroom. Following that, I intend to stencil a feature wall in the Carolina Room and paint the other 3 walls some color I haven’t figured out yet.

Here is a pic of the stencil that I’ll be using (I got about 75% of the master bedroom wall done before decided it was too busy with our bed and painting over it).

All of this I want done in the next month or so, so I can then paint the master bath and put a bed in the Carolina Room in preparation for all the guests at Thanksgiving 🙂

I have all this to do, yet I would rather play outside. Tomorrow may be good though, as Foster and I are heading to MacNair’s, this time for a saddle fitting. I am *hoping* to take advantage of their beautiful covered arena and school briefly if they will let me. After that I have the feeling it’s going to be some time before we get back to business at home.

I bet the rain will stop… in time for hurricane season!

What are you guys up to with all the rain? Do you use it to relax inside or for forced labor?

A dream doesn’t…

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Britt

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
-Colin Powell

It all started with a thought.

One evening, a few months ago, Tyler and I thought it might be a good time to hunt for a house. We both have good jobs, interest rates are really good, and we kept hearing that the Raleigh house market was expecting to bounce back soon. So we figured we’d start looking.

We looked at properties all over town- Apex, Fuquay, Holly Springs, Durham, and Raleigh. Every place we went to, there was something wrong with it- backyard too small or a mudhole, no garage, on the highway, house too small, weird layouts, bad neighborhoods. We must have seen almost 20 houses. Only two stood out to us.

The first was an adorable house in Apex, very convenient to the highway but sans the noise and located in a mature, impeccably maintained neighborhood. The drawback- it was on a pond. While the survey said the plot was a third of an acre, in reality it was about half that- thanks to the inclusion of the pond. Not very helpful when half your land is water! However, the layout worked, we loved the neighborhood, and we kept thinking about it.

The other was a foreclosure. Sure, there were holes in the walls, a jungle in the backyard, and carpets that even the bravest soul dare not walk barefoot upon, but again it was located in a fantastic neighborhood, had the best layout we’d seen, and all .4 acres were dry! After much soul searching, and discussing whether or not a project was right for us, this is the house we put in an offer on.

The great thing about a foreclosure is that you can get a good deal. The downside is that you buy the house ‘as-is’. We could inspect all we want, but we couldn’t turn on the water or gas, and HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development- US government) wasn’t going to help us to discover the history of the house.

The other downside to this whole process is that we had 15 days to inspect the house and back out if we could. You might be thinking “2 weeks? Sounds long enough!”, but unfortunately, those 15 days included Christmas eve, Christmas day, New Year’s Eve, and 2 weekends- a tough time to schedule inspections, tests, and any other thing for that matter!

Nonetheless, we did it all, and came within hours of the 15 day notice and committed to the house. The house on the hill would be ours.