Ford-ology: new house

After 45 days of anxiously waiting, living out of moving boxed and waiting for the WHOLE house to be painted and re-carpeted, it's time for a tour of the new FordOlogy Home. Even with bare walls and a 3 car garage still packed with boxes to be unloaded (we really have so much crap), we're ready to let the house make its first PUBLIC appearance.
After a quick video tour I'll do a little Q&A to answer some new house questions.
Now grab some popcorn, a Diet Coke, put up your feet and get ready to tap your toes along to a quick three and a half minute home tour.

(I'm still new at this movie making business... You can also watch the video over on Youtube HERE)
Where Is The House Located? In Utah! Provo, Utah. Kevin works in Utah County, and when we began our house hunt, we knew we were up to moving anywhere in Utah County.

How Big Is The House? 3800 square feet. Yes. It's a BIG house for 4 (almost 5) people but I've always dreamt of a home I could entertain and host and raise my babies in. It also helps that in Utah most everyone has a basement which adds a TON of square feet.
How Many Bedrooms/Bathrooms? 5 bedrooms/3.5 bathrooms. It also has a formal living, a formal dining, a future theater room and large play room/preschool area.

How Big Is The Property? .26 of an acre which is plenty big for our little ones. The house sits close to the street in the front, which leaves tons of space in the backyard. The previous owners left a play set and we replaced our old trampoline. We have several large tree's the provide beautiful shade in the evening and 4 fruit tree's that we can't wait to harvest this first summer.

How Much Did You Pay For The House? That's one answer I can't give you an exact number for but I will give you some details. Both Kevin and I believe in living "within" our means, and I recognize that means different things for different people, however one major point of that for us is to have zero to no debt. Our home is our ONLY debt. We had a lot of equity in our previous home which helped us feel comfortable in purchasing a more expensive home, because we had more to put down. We (mostly Kev) carefully reviewed our budget and what a bigger home might do to our month to month, and together we chose a number of what our max budget was for a home at this point in our life/his career. It also helped that Kevin was able to get a commission on the sale of our previous home and purchase of the new one.
Did You Do Carpet/Painting Updates Yourself? We hired out both the carpet and painting. Repainting all 3800 square feet, and carpeting 2500 square feet took a lot of work and time. Unfortunately, after our final walkthrough of the home, Kevin and I both agreed the paint and carpet were both in poor condition. Fortunately, we were able to get some cost of the updates off the price of the home. Kevin had a business connection for a painter, and we were able to use his services which saved us a lot of money. Although it was 1 man painting the whole house and it took almost 3 weeks, it was absolutely worth it. Our painter was so great and paid such close attention to details. We used Wholesale Flooring Inc. in Murray to carpet our previous basement before we sold the home and were so happy with their service, cost and quality that we knew we were going to use them again. For the entire house we chose a thick carpet in a beige neutral color. It was important to us to get a carpet/pad that would last as we raised the little ones, and at $10.50/yrd we couldn't have gotten a more affordable or quality carpet. We are SO happy! We chose the Neptune 101 carpet to help hide any messes, stains and "oopsies" we know we're destined to have with 3 small children.

Did we use an agent? We sure did... KEVIN! Ha. Kev works in Commercial Real Estate and with his license he was able to represent us. It always amazes me how well Kevin does his job and it was so fun to watch him represent us again and fill me in on everything that was going on with our purchase. It was truly a blessing for us this time as we bought a bigger, more expensive home to have his "insider" knowledge of the market. Good work babe!

Thanks for watching/reading along today. We hope that answered most of your questions of our big move and home update. Please feel free to leave any other moving/purchasing a home/budget questions below.