Buying our first home was like a dream come true. Although living in government quarters was very nice up to this point in my military career, but having our own home was something Chong Suk and I had been planning for some time. We were living off base in a townhome without a private backyard while I was stationed at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in the early 1980's.
Our daughter, Kimberly, was just turning 4 years old, and she had been given a new German Shephard mix puppy, which required us to have our very own private backyard. I was in my 14th year of military service, and was told that my duty station in Denver, Colorado would most likely be my last assignment before retirement.
I had decided to use my VA loan benefit to acquire our first home, since it didn't require a down payment. Yet, no one told us about closing costs or the VA funding fees. But the builder really helped out with some of those costs and fees. In the spring of 1982, interest rates had reached 14.5 percent, and we thought it best to buy a new construction home in the Aurora, Colorado area. We were glad that we bought our first home at that time, since the following year the interest rates were already reaching 20 percent. I listen to buyers today complaining about 7 and 8 percent interest rates, and I tell them they should be glad they weren't trying to buy a home in the 1980's.
We purchased a new construction home for $70,000 in Aurora, Colorado near Buckley Air Force Base in a Pulte Home community. It was a bi-level, 2 bedrooms, 2 bath, 2 car garage home with a partially finished basement with a fireplace. We later added a third bedroom and another bath in the basement, but we wished we had installed carpet in the basement instead of all the tiled flooring. It gets very cold in the winters there, and having the fireplace on that lower level didn't really keep the house warm enough. It was truly a learning experience for first time home buyers like us.
We planted grass seeds in the front yard, but not in our backyard as it was very long and deep since we were in a cul-de-sac. Therefore, for our daughter, Kimberly, we added a swing and sandbox for her to play in the backyard. We really loved our first home, but three years later we had to sell since I requested one last overseas tour of duty to Europe and landed an assignment to Belgium at SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe)
Our biggest regret was the money we lost when we had to sell our home. We learned that it's never a good idea to have the most improved home in the neighborhood, as no one else upgraded and finished out their basement, or improved the backyard like we did. We also had to bring money to the closing table and offer several incentives for that buyer to stay under contract. But I was fortunate that my sister was licensed in Colorado at that time, and she did save us on real estate commissions.
Looking back, it was a very memorable experience as we had some great neighbors. We enjoyed owning our own home where we had several great parties with friends and co-workers. I will never forget that blizzard in 1982 over the Christmas Holiday weekend. I worked that Christmas Eve, which was on a Friday at the hospital for the night shift but couldn't go home the next morning as snow covered all the cars in the parking lot. The workers that would have normally been removing all the snow off the streets were given the day off for Christmas Eve. Therefore, on Christmas morning, snow was everywhere and only emergency vehicles with chains were allowed on the streets. Consequently, I had to stay in the hospital working for others who couldn't come in until Sunday morning when the streets were finally cleared. Believe it or not, I did consider returning to Denver after retiring from military service, but family ties were in Texas, and I needed to be close to my hometown since my brother's health was failing.
Images used are from Shutterstock and don't represent the actually house that we bought back in 1982.
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