We Closed Today

It's no longer my Fixer-Upper. I'm not sad though, so everything's good.

I flew from New York to Fargo this morning, landing in the frigid tundra at 10:3o. By 11:30 I had a pen in my hand and I was signing, signing, signing. I had originally thought that I wouldn't be able to be in town for closing, so it was a nice treat to be able to take part. I'm glad that I could be there at the begininning and the end of this adventure. It was also really nice to see my realtor, Jenny again as we had only been conversing through email and phone-tag for months.

I also met the new owner. This situation could have gone two different ways and, fortunatelly, it went very well. He had two of his kids with him and he seems like a really great guy. He has worked as a contractor and has experience working on houses. Score! He's going to start refinishing the floors soon. I might just have to bring him some holiday cookies or something, just to spy on what the floors look like all cleaned up! His kids had already picked out which room was for whom, and they had picked out their new paint colors. It really made my day just to see them excited to call my old house their new home. Good stuff, people. Good stuff.

So, I suppose this is the last entry about the house. I'll make sure to alert you should I decide to buy another fixer upper someday. Trust me, I'm sure I will. It's just too much fun for me.

My best wishes for a special Christmas and an exciting, adventurous 2009!
-Nathan

Sold Sign Signals Sale Soon

Lets hear it for alliteration today!

Martha, always my eyes and ears in the Fargo building scene, emailed me this fantastic photo of the house with its little red 'SOLD' sign. Thanks Martha!
From what I understand, that light blanket of snow has since turned into a blizzard. We don't have any snow yet here in New York. Go ahead, just ask me if I miss it.

Well, we're closing a week from today ladies and gents. My last week as a homeowner. You can't see it from where you are but my bottom lip is pushed out as I pout. On a happier note I'll also be flying back to North Dakota again for Christmas on Monday, so I'm pretty excited about that. I haven't been able to get into the Christmas spirit yet but hopefully the change in geography will get me there.

Before I sign off here, I need to extend a great deal of thanks to my realtor, Jenny Schuster, for her work with this house. I had no idea that it could be so much fun to work with a realtor and she has certainly gone above and beyond for me. It can't be easy to try to sell someone's house when he is 1500 miles away but she did a great job, offering her advice and expertise along the way. Might I add that she's hilarious. If you or anyone you know is looking into a real estate transaction in Fargo, get in touch with her. Trust me! Thanks Jenny!

Have a great week & take care everyone!

S-O-L-D

Martha, you get a gold star for the day. I did indeed accept an offer on the Fixer(ed)-Upper!!!

I'd photoshop some kind of cool 'SOLD' photo with the house but my computer broke again.

We're closing in ten short days and I have to say that I'm very satisfied. There were a couple snags along the way (P.O. issues, STILL!) but in all it was a pretty easy deal.

It's a little bitter sweet for me though. It's nice to think that I've already made my last mortgage payment on the house, especially with the cost of living in NY, but it is hard to think back to all of the work my family and I put into the house. What makes it easier to give up is this next part. I'm totally stoked about this part.

The guy who is buying the house isn't an investor, he's going to live in the house himself. WITH HIS KIDS!!! I am so happy my house will be lived in by a family, not rented to more sketchy weirdos! The closing date is the 22nd, assumable so they can move in before Christmas. How nice is that? The mental image of a family opening gifts in my living room on Christmas morning is such a great picture that it makes all of the work worth it.

...AND I don't have to pay that stupid mortgage anymore! YES!!!

Commode, Copper, Cashmere?

You didn't think you'd see it, did you? Another post about a repair project. The mind boggles!

I was visiting friends in Fargo yesterday when I received a call from my realtor. I was excited, thinking it was an offer or something, but no. The house was being shown and there was water on the floor in the bathroom from some sort of toilet leak. I think this house just knows when I'm in town and needs to have my attention.

I swung by the house to take a look and see where the water was leaking. Fortunately it was up top and not at the base of the toilet. I wasn't about to go pulling everything apart down to the floor! The coupling between the tank and the bowl was leaking due to a faulty seal, so off I went to the 'Depot for parts.

The part was surprisingly easy to find so I picked it up and then grabbed some insulation for the copper pipes that lead to the kitchen sink. Somebody in their P.O. wisdom installed the pipes right next to the foundation wall where they like to sit and freeze in the winter. I don't know if I blogged about running downstairs during the coldest parts of Jan/Feb with a hair dryer to get the water running again, but I did it a couple times. After some unnecessary browsing through tile and lighting (I can't help myself) I made my purchases and went back to the house.

The water didn't need to be turned off because I hadn't paid a water bill for quite a few months. Strange how I wasn't getting the bills in New York, huh. Later I had to visit the city office to get the water turned back on, but that's another story entirely.

I luckily found a screwdriver and pliers in the basement to use for the job. I really wasn't prepared to be doing house projects yesterday as evidenced by my skinny jeans and cashmere blend turtleneck. Yeah, I was elbows deep in a toilet wearing cashmere. Typical me, right?

Here I am with my toilet supplies, found pliers, and inappropriate housework attire:

I removed the leaky coupling and did my best to catch all of the water in an old mug that I found abandoned in a cabinet. After I dried everything off I dropped in the new coupling and bam, I was done. Easy.

Out with the old:

In with the new:The "under bowl" shot.Next I made my way down to the basement with my insulation to wrap up the copper pipes. I failed to do a spiderweb check and, as I crawled my way over to the pipes, I quickly found myself completely covered with them. In my hair, eyes, mouth, and all over my sweater. After a nice little freak-out session I put up the insulation and ran back upstairs.

I took some photos...

I took some videos...

Then I left, praying that nothing else breaks until it sells!

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.