First Time Jitters
Bill and I were very young when we married. I was only twenty and Bill, twenty-four. He'd just graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and I had one more year to go to finish my teaching degree. My finishing school was interrupted by a short stay in North Hollywood, Ca., where Bill worked on a special airplane for the military. Back home in Grand Prairie, Texas, I completed my degree and went to work for a small district in Dallas County--Red Oak. I made a whopping $6,000 a year (yes, that's right for all of you with your mouths hanging open)! Bill had his engineering degree and made $9,000 a year. It was the early 1970's when gas was thirty-five cents a gallon, which our little Mustang Mach 1 guzzled. I budgeted $29.00 a week for groceries and pretty much bought the exact same thing every week: ground beef, pork chops, a whole chicken (do you know how to cut one up?), packaged Chef Boyardee pizza (we each ate one whole pizza), bread and veggies (usually canned). Those were the good old days. Our first apartment was $120.00 per month--one bedroom, one bath. I freaked out the day Bill told me he wanted to upgrade to a two bedroom which was $135.00 per month. Where was that extra fifteen dollars going to come from? Fortunately Bill received a raise the next week which just covered our higher rent, and we were living the dream with a study for all his books.
The decision to rent when first married back in the day was pretty much set in stone. Interest rates were in the mid to high 7% range. That really isn't too bad. We've been spoiled of late. It was difficult to save money when living on a shoestring, but we wandered around open houses and new home sites around our third year of marriage, trying to figure out if we could purchase a home. We had two cars by then, a VW bug and our Mach 1. But we had also become very integrated with my students at the high school in Red Oak. Many of them often drove the several miles from Red Oak to Grand Prairie to hang out. We also had a Christian coffee house that met a couple of times a week where my students came to play guitars and have Bible studies. It seemed more and more right for us to move to that community. In one of our forays into open houses, we met a young man who'd built a home I fell in love with. Only thing...it was in the wrong city. Red Oak was wide open spaces back then, and finding a piece of land on which to build a home wasn't all that daunting. We found the land first, then the young man came out to the country and set our new home right in the middle of a third of an acre of pasture. I can't tell you how fun it was to pick out the carpeting and wallpaper and brick. I do have to tell you that the carpet in our bedroom was red and blue shag, though. Just to confess that I'm hopeful I have better taste now. When my mother-in-law saw it, she had to swallow hard not to gasp. I got a red, white and blue bedspread to go with it and hung red curtains over the windows. I'm sure it looked like someone had bled to death in there, but I loved it.
Since we hadn't really saved any money, in order to buy the home, we had to sell one of our cars and the Mustang was forfeited. We'd paid about $3500 for it in 1969, and one of the young men at school bought it from us, covering the down payment and closing. The home was $14,000, I believe. The house payment was just about what we could afford...we made it work. And we loved having our home. I spent hours planting the yard. I can't tell you how much I loved to mow and how much Bill hates it. We argued over it for a year. Finally I asked him why he was so obstinate about mowing when he hated it and I loved it. "All the neighbors will think I'm a terrible husband," he replied with a sigh. "Just buy me a kick-ass mower then, and they'll all be jealous!" And he did!
We brought our first two babies home to this house. Made memories we will never forget. And it became our first solid investment. When we sold it to move to California a few short years later, we had gained enough equity to purchase a home here. But it was a stretch. We had to economize. I made my own clothes and those of my two daughters. We rarely ate out. I created Christmas presents. And looking back, I wouldn't trade the experiences. Everyone's first home should be a gift for now and one that gives back in the future.
Bottom Line: It's always daunting to purchase your first home. It can be much easier with all the right people in place to help with all the decision making that goes with a purchase. There will be first time jitters, but remember, real estate is also an investment...a savings plan that will, with planning and care, reap rewards down the line. And, if you want red and blue carpet, have at it!
The decision to rent when first married back in the day was pretty much set in stone. Interest rates were in the mid to high 7% range. That really isn't too bad. We've been spoiled of late. It was difficult to save money when living on a shoestring, but we wandered around open houses and new home sites around our third year of marriage, trying to figure out if we could purchase a home. We had two cars by then, a VW bug and our Mach 1. But we had also become very integrated with my students at the high school in Red Oak. Many of them often drove the several miles from Red Oak to Grand Prairie to hang out. We also had a Christian coffee house that met a couple of times a week where my students came to play guitars and have Bible studies. It seemed more and more right for us to move to that community. In one of our forays into open houses, we met a young man who'd built a home I fell in love with. Only thing...it was in the wrong city. Red Oak was wide open spaces back then, and finding a piece of land on which to build a home wasn't all that daunting. We found the land first, then the young man came out to the country and set our new home right in the middle of a third of an acre of pasture. I can't tell you how fun it was to pick out the carpeting and wallpaper and brick. I do have to tell you that the carpet in our bedroom was red and blue shag, though. Just to confess that I'm hopeful I have better taste now. When my mother-in-law saw it, she had to swallow hard not to gasp. I got a red, white and blue bedspread to go with it and hung red curtains over the windows. I'm sure it looked like someone had bled to death in there, but I loved it.
Since we hadn't really saved any money, in order to buy the home, we had to sell one of our cars and the Mustang was forfeited. We'd paid about $3500 for it in 1969, and one of the young men at school bought it from us, covering the down payment and closing. The home was $14,000, I believe. The house payment was just about what we could afford...we made it work. And we loved having our home. I spent hours planting the yard. I can't tell you how much I loved to mow and how much Bill hates it. We argued over it for a year. Finally I asked him why he was so obstinate about mowing when he hated it and I loved it. "All the neighbors will think I'm a terrible husband," he replied with a sigh. "Just buy me a kick-ass mower then, and they'll all be jealous!" And he did!
We brought our first two babies home to this house. Made memories we will never forget. And it became our first solid investment. When we sold it to move to California a few short years later, we had gained enough equity to purchase a home here. But it was a stretch. We had to economize. I made my own clothes and those of my two daughters. We rarely ate out. I created Christmas presents. And looking back, I wouldn't trade the experiences. Everyone's first home should be a gift for now and one that gives back in the future.
Bottom Line: It's always daunting to purchase your first home. It can be much easier with all the right people in place to help with all the decision making that goes with a purchase. There will be first time jitters, but remember, real estate is also an investment...a savings plan that will, with planning and care, reap rewards down the line. And, if you want red and blue carpet, have at it!
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