Hard to understand how two people who could get good jobs couldn’t read the contract.
In 1985 we borrowed $25K at 13% interest and my husband built our house, physically hammering in every nail and doing the plumbing and electric himself with some help from our teenage sons.
When the interest rates dropped, we refinanced to 11% and then a few years later to 9% and had it all paid off in about 12 years.
In the early 90s, our mortgage was around 11% or so, too. On just that “victim” wife’s salary, we scrimped and saved to get a reasonably priced house paid off. Moved to another reasonably priced house with a 10% mortgage and paid it off. Of course, with property taxes constantly on the rise and libs moving in with their CA pricing, our once reasonably priced house with reasonable taxes has outpaced our piddly income.