by Thelly Reahm Tidbits of Time
1951
TWO BEDROOM, 1 BATH, V.A. the sign on Morena Boulevard read. Beside the sign was a rather large stack of lumber. It was meant to give the buyer confidence that houses would be built very soon. This would be the very first tract development in Pacific Beach.
We bought our first house on a cul-de-sac for safety for the children. It was one block above Morena Boulevard, the Santa Fe Railroad and Pacific Highway (which later on become I-5). At that time, we didn't know the importance of the now famous slogan in Real Estate of "Location, Location, Location."
The men were just home from W.W. II and we all purchased our houses for less than $9,000 with three and a half percent G.I. loans. There were thirty kids on our block and several 'in the oven' as we called it then. That's a lot to know about a total stranger before you even meet. We were forced to bond quickly....we had lawns to plant, yards to fence and carpools to form. We didn't even have telephones or paved streets for many months.
We were probably the only ones who didn't have the $100.00 for closing costs. We borrowed it from Franny and Lil Wilson. Unfortunately, they didn't qualify for the G.I. loan because he was paid on commission at that time. We qualified, but didn't have the money for closing.
Our previous abode in La Jolla was furnished. We bought a used stove and moved in with nothing but our small apartment sized refrigerator, a crib and a youth bed. We chose to buy a sofa bed, so that we would have a place to sit in the living room, as well as a place to sleep. I remember how terribly uncomfortable it was while I was nursing Kathy who was only six weeks old when we moved in.
We knew nothing about landscaping and had never heard of a 'green thumb' but we had access to a friends flat bed trailer, so we hauled dirt from the San Diego River bed for top soil for our front lawn. It was great and fertile stuff, filled with every weed known to man. But what did we know? We were young and trying to save money.
The color scheme for the neighborhood was simplicity itself. If you bought a grey house, your living room was green and the bedrooms were peach. If you bought a green house, the living room was grey and the bedrooms were peach. All the floors were oak except the kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen tile was pale yellow trimmed with green whether your house had grey or green exterior. The builder, Mr. McGraw didn't have a lot of pazazz when it came to decor, but he built sturdy houses. They are still there today, and many of them have been remodeled with two stories to take advantage of the great view of Mission Bay Aquatic Park....home to the Thunderboat races each summer.
When we first chose our lot, it was on a gently sloping hillside....previously a horse riding stable. The developer built one model home and you could choose the 'other' floorplan from the architects drawings. Because of the marvelous view we chose the house plan with the living room on the back overlooking the bay. It had a small entry hall in front. I had never heard of houses having living rooms on the back before and I thought this would be terribly unique. I didn't know that the majority of a young mother's time would be spent in the kitchen that looked out on a dirt street and houses with no lawns.
A few weeks later we drove out to visit our land. To our surprise, the gently sloping hillside had been carved by bulldozers into terraced lots up and down the hill. Supposedly to give everyone a better view of the bay. What it did was chop our lots in half. Our back yard was now about 15 feet lower than the plot where our house would be. We were sick but we were already approved for loans and building permits were pulled. Now this would probably involve retaining walls and stairs.
Poppy said, "They're never going to do anything with that pile of lumber. And do you know you'll be paying $30,000 dollars for that when you're done paying for it?" I didn't understand that high finance stuff at all. At this point in my life I'd never purchased anything on credit before. What could I possibly know about compound interest.
There were no deadlines for the homeowners to landscape or for the builder to do the road improvements. We waited almost a year for Ma Bell to put in phone lines. Meanwhile we made do with one telephone booth at the end of the street. There was always a line and it was generally to call the Pediatrician. But this was our home....we weren't just throwing out money down the drain for rent like before. Our house payments were only $18.00 more than our rent had been. $68.00 a month....taxes and insurance included. You couldn't beat that with a stick!
That is until you realized that you needed a second car living out here in the wilderness and fences to keep the skunks and coyotes out. And retaining walls to keep the house from slipping into the bay. Those $5.00 per month time payments could really add up fast.
Then there were school clothes and wagons and bicycles and lawnmowers and those new fangled garbage disposers. And drapes and rugs. And pictures and mirrors. And that first coat of paint didn't last long. So we bought a little red pickup truck to haul our 'unfinished' furniture in. We set up wood-staining tables in the garage and finished furniture like we were pros. There wasn't such a thing as health insurance, so the doctor bills piled up steadily. I learned to cook frugally, to sew my children's clothes and to make do. Growing up in the Thirties had taught me well. Use it up....wear it out....make it do....or go without!
We had those old 'homeowner blues' occasionally, but this was our little corner of the world and we wouldn't have changed a thing. We were young and strong and exceptionally naive!
No comments:
Post a Comment