Lets Pay the Fixer-Upper a Visit!!!

It's been a while since I've posted on here. Good news ladies 'n gents; I'm going to be in Fargo one week from today! I can't tell you how excited I am. Seriously, I haven't been back in over half a year. I'm going to take lots of pictures and post them on here. Pictures of my beautiful, refurbished house and me.

Flat prairies of ND, here I come!

Stay tuned next weekend!!!

New Blog!

As this blog wraps up, I decided to start a new blog about how I'm doing out in New York. Actually it will be mostly pictures of the city and a lot of architectural shots peppered with little tidbits about what I'm doing out here. For some of my return readers: don't feel obligated to follow the new blog. Just because you enjoyed reading about fixing up houses doesn't mean you'll want to read about some mid-western kid dropped in NYC. I understand & take no offense!

No, the house hasn't sold yet.

Fashion Week Update

Greetings loyal readers! It's been a busy couple of weeks. No the house hasn't sold yet but I hear it's showing really well. The activity has all been here in New York. It is really hard for new models to book shows in New York, as the designers generally prefer to use models they are familiar with. This year it was even harder for the male models because there were less menswear shows and the shows were using fewer models. Quite a few of my friends came up empty-handed this week, but I was fortunate enough to book a show! The show was a presentation, so I'll have to hold onto my runway walk for next season. The designer was Antonio Azzuolo and the show was on Sunday in the West Village. Here are a couple photos:
Pretty cool, huh? The day before I did some showroom work for 3.1 Philip Lim, which basically means I tried on every look for their runway show so they could take photos of how they wanted the clothes to look. The show was today and it was really interesting to look at the photos and think that I wore all of the clothes four days prior!

Before the next season rolls around, my agency wants me to develop a bit more and get some more exposure. They want to make sure that I'm not a stranger when the shows are casting in Milan and Paris. They are thinking the best way to do this would be for me to travel and book some magazine editorials... in EUROPE!!! So, now it sounds like they are going to look for an agency to represent me in Milan or maybe Paris. Not sure of anything yet, but I'll keep ya posted.

...somebody buy the house already. With that said, that's all for me.

Troubles! Fashions! Photos!

Ok, so for the most part everything is going well with the house. We've had a lot of showings, and some interest already. No offers yet, but It's only been a couple weeks.

...now for the problem. Brace yourself:
Smack! Right on the neighbor's garage! There was some sort of storm that apparently couldn't wait until the house was sold. Fortunately their insurance will cover the cost of removing the limb and repairing the roof. Dad found someone who can reinforce the rest of the tree with cable so we don't have to take it out. Sadly, it was the best looking of all of the trees the yard had! This place never has and never will have pristinely manicured gardens, so I don't think it's too big of a deal.

My sister, who was living in the house the last couple months, got her paramedic degree and accepted a job offer in Iowa. The house is now completely vacant and ready for some new owners to take care of her. My wallet and I are hoping for this to happen soon...

For an NYC update, next week is Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and this week is when the castings are for those runway shows. I went to my first casting today, (saw a couple past ANTM winners there), and have another casting lined up for tomorrow afternoon. I had a couple test shoots last week and my agency ordered prints which should be ready by tomorrow. The prints will go in my book (portfolio... we call it a book) so clients can see my purdy mug all glam'd up. If you want to see the results of my test shoot, the best few shots are on my agency's website. You'll find me in the 'new faces' section. I'm the guy in the white, collared shirt under the name 'Nathan'. I'll keep you posted if I book any cool shows.

Take care everyone!

On the Market

Well, the house is on the market and I'm just waiting for an offer. From what I understand, the house was shown twice this weekend.

Dad and Mom flew out to NYC this weekend to visit. It's been a lot of fun showing them my new city and catching up. They're heading home tomorrow morning though. Wish their trip was a little longer. Have a good week everyone!

Guess Who Hit Newsstands this Morning?

I grabbed a copy of DNR magazine this morning (by that I mean when I left the house at 2pm), and there I was. Page 10. I ended up being the only model who was printed with the story, so I guess I was lucky. Just thought I'd share!Looks like a few too many layers for 95+ degrees, huh?

An Update and a High-Five from New York

In case anyone still checks this blog once and a while, (and per Kathy's request) I thought I'd leave an update.

The house is coming along, thanks to my amazing parents who are putting everything back together for me. I absolutely couldn't be doing what I'm doing in New York without them picking up after me. Thanks! From our conversations, the living room and dining room are all painted, and the stairwell is done too. I think Mom's going to email me photos, and I'll share them with you as soon as I get them. She said it looks really nice and that it's probably exactly how I would have wanted it to be while I was living there. I really wish I could be there to help. I feel like I left my baby with its grandparents and I'm missing its first steps!

My roommates have all moved out but my sister moved in, as she was looking for some short-term housing in Fargo after her roommate moved away. It's pretty cool because she can keep tabs on it and hopefully it won't get that weird vacant house smell. You know, the one you get at an open house that's been on the market forever and the owners are long gone.

Now, as for New York, it's been in interesting month!

I've moved into an apartment in Harlem, which is much nicer than the models' apartment I was staying at in the Bronx. It's nice to have a permanent place to make my own... even if it's a 10 X 7 foot room. It's a five bedroom, one bathroom apartment I share. Thankfully the lifestyle of a fashion model allows for a later wake-up call than the roommates. When I get up they're all gone and the bathroom is mine. MINE!

I did paint the room when I moved in, so I guess that's close to being houseblog-able. I went for a steely blue color. I had photos but accidentally deleted them. Kinda upset about them, but more upset about the photo of me flashing gang-signs in my Bronx subway station at 3am. I could recreate it, but I don't think I'm going back to the Bronx. Ever.

As for work, it's been picking up the last week or so. I booked my first job on Tuesday, modeling for a press presentation for Topman that was held Wednesday. I was photographed by DNR magazine, and videotaped by the BBC. I have no idea if that video will ever surface, but I'd be interested in seeing it if it did!

I checked DNR magazine's website today, and it seems they decided to forgo the photos of the other models and me in favor of the company's owner, who I personally feel is a couple notches down on the chic scale from the rest of us. Even though I can't prove it, I was fully dressed in Topman, standing in front of that orange neon sign. I swear. I'm going to stop into a magazine shop tomorrow downtown and see if they included some more photos in the print edition. I had better be in there! I didn't wear a button down shirt, heavy wool sweater, double-breasted wool coat and gloves on a 95 degree day in NYC for nothing! I guess I got paid, so it doesn't matter.

Other than that, I've had some good go-sees lately. For those of you who don't watch the TV show America's Next Top Model, a go-see is when models are sent out by the agency to meet with casting directors, photographers, or designers. These people would take your information, might ask to see your runway walk, and take some basic photos to keep on record for when they have jobs that come up. I had a go-see Thursday with a very big casting director that went really well. He had me show him my runway walk, sat there with a deep-thought look on his face, then asked me if I could do it again. As I finished my second pass, he muttered "genius" under his breath. As I left he said "we'll see you soon"! He called my agency and told them he liked me and asked about my schedule for an upcoming show. Of course, it means nothing without actually booking the job, but at least I caught the attention of the right guy! I'll find out if I got that job this week, as well as another show I've been on hold for for two months. It would be really cool to book those jobs, considering they're in Florence and Milan!!! BIG name designers, but I don't want to jinx it.

Other than that, I've just been taking in the city and trying to keep up with people back home. I check my google-reader account every day, so I'm keeping current with everyones' blogs. It's sad, but I get my renovations 'fix' vicariously through all of you. I'm going through construction withdrawals!

Lastly, I was between go-see appointments the other day and I was trying to kill time (they were a block apart and scheduled an hour apart) so I did a little browsing. The building next door to the first go-see was an URBAN HOME DEPOT!!! I've never seen 'the Depot without a parking lot or freight entrance. I definitely had never seen one that had three levels. I took a photo, but that was in the batch of photos I accidentally deleted. When I'm back in the area I'll do it again. It just blew my mind. The merchandise was different from Fargo too. I think a lot of people here are looking to either use luxury materials or restore old buildings because there was a much larger selection of quality materials (hello, boards and boards of marble samples?) and vintage inspired items like amazing mosaic tiles, classic patterns, light fixtures that were NOT available to me, and the coolest entry sets. What I also saw was an obvious lack of the 'builders special' basic items that clone themselves into every suburban split level in America. It was just cool to see the difference.

Oh, sorry, rambling post. This one got long! Thanks to anyone with the patience to get this far.

Reporting Live from NYC:

Good Morning loyal readers!

I've been in New York for two days now, absolutely loving it, but still need to post a few things from the house. As it got close to moving time I finished a couple projects, but didn't have time to post about them. Lets try to catch up, shall we?

First of all, I thought the broken window in the living room might be cause for concern for potential home buyers. In took four hours to finish what I thought would be a one hour job. Typical.

First, wearing gloves, I started chipping away the old glazing compound and removing the broken pieces of glass. Once all of the glass had been removed I chiseled out any remaining glazing compound from the window sash. I did my best to brush off any dirt or dust from the wood as that would make it hard for the new glazing compound to stick to.
Next step: cut the glass to fit the window. First problem I encountered? I got the wrong size piece of glass. Trip to the 'Depot. While I was in the area I also grabbed dinner from a sub place I knew I was going to miss. You're starting to see why this took 4 hours, right? Once I had the correct piece of glass at home, I used some of the old broken pieces of glass to practice cutting on.

The makers of the glass cutting tool recommend scoring a dozen passes on a scrap piece of glass to make sure that it is in good working order before you screw up your new piece. I measured out how much of the glass needed to be cut off, then used a T-square to make sure the cut was perpendicular to the edge. One quick score line across the glass and we were ready to break it. I flipped the glass over and used the little ball-end of the cutter to tap the glass along the score line. The glass cracked along that line and the new glass was ready to install.

The little groove that holds the glass in the window needs a little glazing compound so the glass has a bed of it to sit in. Once I suffered through trying to do that on a vertical surface (I didn't take the sash out of the window frame) I put the glass in and secured it with the glazing points. If you don't know, those are little metal pieces that are pushed over the glass into the frame and hold the glass in place, much like the prongs on a diamond ring. Finally, I replaced the glazing compound around the edges of the glass and used a putty knife to shape it into a 45 degree angle.In future projects like this I'll be using the glazing compound that comes in a caulking tube. For this project I used the tub of glazing compound and it was a nightmare. You pull out this wad of hard compound and work it in your hands until it is soft enough to roll into a rope to put on the window. Wait, if you work with it too long it becomes like silly putty and stretches and falls down. Also, it will stick to your hands and your putty knife better than to wood or glass. Just a little fun fact.

While I was having all of this fun with glazing compound I finished the storm windows for the two little windows flanking the fireplace. They will need to be primed, painted, and rehung still, but the hard part was getting them fixed up in the first place. For some reason, even thought I had taken the glass out of the windows, it wouldn't fit back in. You'd think that if you could pull the glass out of the frame it would fit right back in, wouldn't you? Yeah, I thought that too. I had to scrape down the wood on all four sides to make the glass fit back in... where it was for the last 80 years. I don't get it.

I think the house was just mad that I was leaving it without finishing first.

One last thing: Spring Cleanup saved my behind. Fargo, as most towns do, has a spring cleanup when you can haul almost anything to the boulevard and they'll take it away for you. I already mentioned that I had a washer and dryer get taken from the boulevard with a refrigerator. By the time that the garbage people came to collect, the garbage pile had been pretty well picked through by people. They took those appliances as well as an old computer, an orange traffic cone, fireplace tools, a pair of shoes, clothes, magazines, a cowboy hat, a broken bicycle that came with the house, and some old wooden shelves. Amazing.
One Nate's trash is another random stranger's treasure. In all, I threw out seven jumbo trash bags and eight boxes of stuff. It came out to about half of my things, leaving only about ten boxes to be stored at my parents' place. It felt really good getting rid of everything I don't need. A good word to use would be cleansing. I just got rid of things that I didn't need that I was holding on to for no good reason. I'm a recovering pack-rat, but I'm getting over it fast. This is how much stuff I have in New York. I'd say that's about as far from pack-rat as you can get!

I'm missing the house already (living in a questionable old building in the Bronx) but I love being in New York. I'll miss blogging about the house too. I'll just get my kicks reading & commenting on the rest of you guys' blogs.