There was hemming… There was hawign… Gears shifted and grinded and then it happened. We bought a truck!

A truck has been one of our major house-related purchases that we knew needed to be made, but when and how much to spend was up in the air.

The biggest debate we had about a truck was deciding if we would get a truck that had maximum towing capacity (around 10,000 lbs) – or just a more normal capacity (around 5,000 lbs). We only need maximum towing capacity for one piece of equipment we will rent during the construction process so it didn’t make a lot of sense to pay more up-front for a bigger truck that gets worse gas mileage for a minimal need. We also can pay to have the heavier equipment delivered – or borrow a truck from one of our many friends who have them.

We also didn’t want to finance a truck because that defeats one of the purposes of this project – getting debt free.

So to Craigslist and the used car lots we went and in the end purchased a 1998 Ford F-150.

This truck features 5,000 lb towing capacity, a fairly new engine (replaced 3 years ago), and one of the most easily spotted from space paint jobs I’ve ever seen (this picture does NOT do it justice). We paid $2,500 for the truck which was fair Kelly Blue Book for it. One value-for-money benefit is that this truck has a fairly decent bash in its other side. The truck was part of a fleet owned by a lawn care company and it looks like they drove a lawnmower into or something like that. But cosmetic damage saved us $1,000 compared to the identical truck from this fleet – so good with us!

Is it the greatest truck ever? – not really. But it is what we need, at a price we can afford (including any repairs) – and Kori looks great driving it! I’m excited to have this new beauty in our family and use it to start hauling gear to the property for the build.

Our first real test will be tomorrow when we rent a trencher and head to the hills to install some silt fence. Seems like something I might write another blog entry about. Ta Ta For Now.