What’s Matthew Mitcham Up To These Days?

 

Matthew Mitcham and his partner Lachlan Fletcher enjoy the time they have together between busy schedules.

The hits on here indicate that a lot of people are still very into Matthew Mitcham, the Olympic gold-medal diver from Australia.  It seems like he’s been a very busy guy since winning the diving championship last year in Beijing.

According to an interview done by afterelton.com: “A year after shooting to worldwide fame, Mitcham isn’t just training for his next diving competition, but is also studying science at Sydney University.”  If you haven’t done so yet, you can read more of the article “Catching Up With Mathew Mitcham” here.

Squidwho also has many photos and links for Matthew Mitcham fans.

Lessons in Buying a House: The Process Continues . . .

Acquiring a house takes up a lot of energy–mental energy that is.  There are emotional highs when you find a place that you really like, lows when barriers get in the way, and there’s lots of waiting, which gives you time to think even m0re, which can be almost all-consuming.

This coming week will be a big one I think.  We’ve agreed on a price and most everything else.  If the offer comes back signed from the sellers, then the finance company must give their first OK and let me know all the details of my closing costs and what my monthly payment will be.  The sellers also have to get the utilities turned back on, so I can get the inspector. They had someone in the house when I first looked at it, but they moved out and now the utilities are off.  The inspection is one of the biggies.  To the inexperienced eye, there doesn’t look to be many problems, but that is why you have an inspector check it all out.  Then if there are no major problems with the inspection, and I still want the house, there will have to be an appraisal done to ascertain if the place is worth what the finance company will be loaning me.  Also, the sellers don’t have a survey, so that will have to be done.  Finally, I have to get hazard insurance (home owners insurance) as the finance company requires that you pay for a year of insurance in advance.  That’s four fairly good chunks of money to pay.  Fortunately, the second one won’t have to be done and paid unless the first works out OK, and, of course, the third and fourth won’t need to be done unless the first two work out.

I hope it all works out.  I think the house makes “a good fit” for me.  It has all the main features that I was looking for: nice, but not too big outdoor space, a big, very usable kitchen, and a shower in the master bath.  Even though it’s located out just a bit further than I would have liked, I’m hoping the drive won’t be too bad, and the neighborhood has a nice feel to it.  It’s also close to stores and necessities: a Walgreen’s, a dry cleaners, and a vet, just up the street, barely a quarter mile away, and two of my other favorite destinations, Barnes and Noble and Petsmart are just a mile down the road.  I went to check out the Barnes and Noble yesterday, and, yes, it’s definitely out in suburbia: they have row after row of books relating to religion and tons of educational materials that make it look like there must be a lot of home schooling going on out there, but they have only two shelves of gay and lesbian books.  Oh, well, I’m sure that they can order anything I might want.

I guess now I’ll have to pay less attention to “House Hunters” and “My First Place” on HGTV and take a better look at the decorating shows.  In fact, I’ve already found several paint companies’ sites where you can play around with different paint colors in various rooms.  The master in this house feels like someone loved pumpkin pie; that’s the first one that is going to have to be changed.  Oh, well, that can happen after all the papers have been signed and I actually have the keys in my hand.

So if anyone who reads my blog has wondered what has happened to me, all I can say is this house-buying process is such a big thing that it outweighs almost everything else right at the moment.  I just haven’t had the energy to care much to write about politics, history, or even the weather.  I know that all that will come back, and there will be many other things about which to give my two cents.

Lessons in Buying a House: An Update on What’s Happening, Sort of . . .

Since it’s been so long since I’ve posted, I guess I had better put something.  I haven’t been jazzed enough to write, but life otherwise hasn’t slowed down.  Work pulls me along, and I enjoy the routine of the days even though what happens moment by moment is only routine in that something similar has happened before.

The house hunting/buying continues.  I put in an offer on one that was good in price and commute, but not great in neighborhood, and definitely weak in kitchen.  (I might mention that this kitchen had only two drawers, one of which won’t open unless you open the oven door first.  I have a small, but better kitchen in my apartment.)  Actually, the bottom line was that the houses are going for a good price (good meaning low) in this neighborhood, but this seller wouldn’t go down to the range of the comps.  In the end, I was worried that even though I could afford the house, that the finance company’s appraisers wouldn’t appraise it high enough for me to be able to finance it.  I guess too the neighborhood and the house just didn’t feel right for me.

After I had put the offer in on that place, and while the seller wasn’t going down but baby steps in price, I found another place in a neighborhood that I like a lot.  Yeah, it’s out in the “burbs”, but it has a great kitchen.  The appliances do need updating (Do I sound like those first-time homebuyers from HGTV?), but the work space is great!  And I think I might even have to use even my toes to help count all the drawers!  It’s going to mean getting up earlier to get on the road to work, but did I mention the great backyard with even a pergula?  I’m not even sure I know how to spell it.  It’s one of those backyards that won’t take a lot of mowing–just enough to say you did it–and will make a great place for a little papillon dog to play and sniff and human folks to sit and drink ice tea, or whatever, and enjoy the evenings.

My new realtor has been great through all of this, helpful but not pushy, and I will soon add another post to follow up the previous one about what makes him good.  But for the moment, this isn’t over because we still have to put in an offer, negotiate, do the inspection and appraisal, finish the paperwork on the financing (My finance people have been great from the beginning; I guess that should be another post too.), and hopefully do the closing close to Trick ‘r Treat time.

If this all works out, there will be pictures!  And, of course, a PayPal link for donations for new furniture.  Just kidding, folks!

Oh, yeah . . . dig the new banner.  There are lots of toadstools, or mushrooms, whatever you want to call them, now that we finally have had some rain.  They are popping up in many places and seem to be big!  I guess they were just waiting to get through all that dry weather we had for so long.