VH community memoir

In early 1982, Jim Eaton and I were renting the house at 2325 Shire Lane from Steve Drach. Jim’s good friend from college, Bob Schneider, also lived in Village Homes and was a builder. Jim worked for the California Wilderness Coalition, which had an office in the Plumshire Building. Mike Corbett also had an office in the building. One day, Jim was talking to Mike and asking him if he knew of any vacant lots where Jim and I could build a house. Mike thought about it for a moment  He liked Jim and they enjoyed talking now and then. Mike said, “I still own a lot in Village Homes where I was thinking of building another house. If you can get the financing, I’ll sell it to you.” 

Jim came home and we immediately went to Bob and Anne Schneider’s house to tell them about it. After we told them, Bob sat us down and said, “Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone until you get the financing. If it’s known that Mike is selling a lot in Village Homes, it’ll get snapped up!” Well, we did manage to get financing at the going rate in 1982 of 17.5%!! However, because of the deep recession going on, we were able to buy the lot for $40,000, and then Bob Schneider built us a house for $40,000. He let Jim work on the house as “sweat equity,” but his other employees got frustrated with Jim’s slow work. Since Jim used all the safety features of the saws and nail guns, it took him more time. During the construction, we *only* had to pay interest on the portion of the loan that was taken out, but this amounted to $700-800 per month.

The house was finished in August 1982, and we moved in. The next month, on Sep 12, we got married at the amphitheater at the community center. We walked to the ceremony from our house with our dog Stickeen, who carried the rings. He handed them off to Wendy’s sister when we arrived.