The homestead, as we imagine it finished — an illustration
rodziewicz.net
Matt & Kaitlyn — newly married, building a small horse homestead on five acres in Durham, Connecticut, and collecting trips the rest of the time.
Foot Hills Road, Durham, Connecticut
Home is a 1998 Cape Cod on 5.3 acres in Durham — fields out front, woods behind, and a long list of projects turning it into a proper horse property. The fencing is going up, the pasture is taking shape, and most weekends you'll find Matt on the tractor or under something that needs fixing, with Kaitlyn keeping the whole operation pointed in the right direction.
The resident animals run the place: three cats — Simba, Roo, and Summer — supervising from the windowsills, and one horse on the way — Kaitlyn's horse Finley, currently boarded at Factum Equine in Berlin, who'll move home once the fencing and pasture are ready for him.
Kaitlyn's horse — the reason for the fence posts
A black horse with unmistakable style: teal bonnet, teal saddle pad. He's boarded at Factum Equine in Berlin while the Durham pasture takes shape — every fence post and shed timber here is aimed at the day he comes home.
The two of us, and the wider clan
Physician assistant, emergency medicine
Matt works in emergency medicine at a Level I trauma center in Hartford, with hospital-medicine and urgent-care years behind him. Off shift, he's a certified snowboard instructor, a serial project-starter, and the household's tractor department. If it has an engine, a roofline, or a flight itinerary, he's interested.
Physician assistant, NICU at St. Francis
Kaitlyn works as a physician assistant in the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Francis. She's also the reason the homestead has a horse: her horse Finley is boarded at Factum Equine in Berlin for now, and getting the Durham property horse-ready is all about bringing him home. Recently married, she and Matt split their time between the build-out and planning the next excuse to get on a plane or a ship.
Margaret, Rich, and Samantha Rodziewicz round out the clan on the domain — family can always reach us at rodziewicz.net, where mail to any of us lands where it should.
Dad
Mom
Sister
Where Kaitlyn comes from
Every family story has two beginnings, and ours gained a whole second one on October 11, 2026, when Kaitlyn Morris married Matt Rodziewicz. She's Kaitlyn Rodziewicz now — but Morris is the name she started with, and the family behind it is part of this page's story too: the people who raised the woman who keeps the Durham homestead, and its builder, pointed in the right direction.
Physician assistant, NICU at St. Francis
Kaitlyn cares for the smallest patients at St. Francis, where she works as a physician assistant in the neonatal intensive care unit. Her horse Finley — a black horse with unmistakable teal style — is the reason the Durham homestead is being built out, fence post by fence post, to bring him home from Factum Equine in Berlin. She and Matt especially love cruising and international travel, and their Thailand & Vietnam trip is their honeymoon.
Kaitlyn's dad
Kaitlyn's mom
Kaitlyn's brother
Kaitlyn's brother Ryan lives with TANGO2 deficiency disorder, a rare genetic condition. He was diagnosed in 2017, at sixteen — the end of a fifteen-year search for answers.
His parents, Mike and Kasha, founded the TANGO2 Research Foundation to fund and drive research toward treatments and a cure, for Ryan and for everyone like him. Research the foundation has funded helped uncover a B-vitamin treatment that is now improving quality of life for people with TANGO2 around the world.
This is the Morris corner of the family page — more Morris stories and photos will find their way here over time.
The newest roll — Finley & the cats
Three of them, and they were here first
The striped one
A silver tabby with strong opinions about containers — if a basket, bag, or box is left unattended, it's his now.
The one with the mustache
Gray and white, with a white mustache you can spot from across the room. Usually found loafing on the back of the couch, supervising.
The camera-shy one
Solid gray, and she does not care for having her photo taken. This portrait exists only because she was asleep — caught mid-nap on a fleece blanket, eyes firmly shut.
Building the homestead — clearing, grading, fencing, and making room for Finley.
Booked, packed (mentally), and counting down
Our honeymoon — three weeks across Southeast Asia: temples and night markets in Chiang Mai, a four-day cruise through the karsts of Lan Ha Bay aboard the Heritage Binh Chuan, the lanterns of Hoi An, and three slow beach days on Phu Quoc to finish — plus a night in Singapore on the way home to see the city properly.
Thailand & Vietnam Honeymoon — Feb 13–Mar 4, 2027 →
Nine nights on the ground: Edinburgh first, then a rental car west to Glencoe and up to Portree on the Isle of Skye — castles, single-track roads, and whatever weather Scotland feels like serving. Flights picked out; the kettle's already on.
The occasion: Aileen & Ryan's wedding — Saturday, May 8, 2027, at Harelaw Farm in Fenwick.
Also ahead: a masked night in New York City — Masquerade, the immersive Phantom, on December 15, 2026 — and, sooner or later, another cruise. There's always another cruise.
How a house in Durham became a homestead — and where it goes next
2024
Matt & Kaitlyn moved into the Cape Cod house in Durham, Connecticut — 5.3 acres of field and woods, and the start of everything on this page.
2024 – 2026
Clearing, grading, fencing, and the 20 × 20 timber-frame shed — turning open field and woods into a horse property, one project at a time, all of it making room for Finley.
October 11, 2026
Matt & Kaitlyn's wedding — Morris became Rodziewicz, and the two families on the Family page became one story.
February – March 2027
Thailand & Vietnam — three weeks across Southeast Asia, from Chiang Mai's temples to a four-day cruise through the karsts of Lan Ha Bay, the lanterns of Hoi An, and slow beach days on Phu Quoc.
May 2027
Edinburgh, Glencoe, and the Isle of Skye by road — and the occasion for the trip: Aileen & Ryan's wedding, May 8, 2027, at Harelaw Farm in Fenwick.
Next chapter
What's next: the pasture and fencing are being built to bring Kaitlyn's horse Finley home from boarding at Factum Equine in Berlin, Connecticut. Every post in the ground is aimed at that day.
Home, places we've been, the honeymoon, and Scotland — tap a pin or a card
The ships that have carried us — name and year
The fastest way to reach the house is email. Family addresses at rodziewicz.net all find their way home.
