Chapter 61 of 100

Chapter 61

16 min read3,953 words

"Right! Let's start building the house now! There are plenty of idle people in the village. We can gather three or four skilled workers, seven or eight laborers, and find two carpenters. It would take no more than ten days to build a house!" Xiao Yang excitedly shouted.

Xiao Yan proposed her opinion: "The new house should have at least two suites, otherwise, with so many people in the family, it will be impossible to live comfortably."

The family had been living in these three small, dilapidated rooms for so long, especially after the three children grew up. It was really suffocating. If the new house could have more suites, Xiao Yan would also have her own private space.

After all, she was a 21-year-old young woman and needed to be mindful of propriety.

Mother nodded: "Yan is right. Your father and I have already discussed it. We will build a house in the style of Liu Zhenhai's house, with three visible rooms and five hidden rooms. There will be two separate large suites at each end, and two hall rooms in the middle. This way, our family will have more space, and when Yang gets married, he can directly move into one of the large suites at one end of the house."

The "three visible, five hidden" style was once very popular in rural areas of the north.

From the name, you can roughly understand that the house appears to have three rooms, but due to the extensions at both ends and the separate suites, it can be considered as five rooms.

In Xili Village, Liu Zhenhai's family was the first to build a brick and tile house in this style. It looked beautiful and grand, making the villagers envious.

Subsequently, Liu Mingxing's family and the village party secretary Wang Zongrui's family also built new houses in this style.

Building such a house required more bricks and materials than a regular five-room house, costing about 7,000 to 8,000 yuan. This was still under the condition that the wood for the beams, rafters, and purlins could be sourced from their own land, which was something the Xiao family could only dream of before.

Moreover, the Xiao family needed to build more than just a new house. They also had to build auxiliary rooms, a courtyard wall, and a gatehouse, which would also cost a significant amount of money.

In the end, the Xiao family had been too poor before.

Hearing Mother's words, Father put down the wine glass in his hand and looked at her with a smile: "I suddenly want to change my mind."

"Huh? What are you thinking now?" Mother asked, quite surprised.

Father waved his hand and said confidently: "I've calculated it carefully. We can actually build all three sides of the house at once! Three main rooms, three north rooms, two south rooms, and the two south rooms can be built a bit lower and smaller. The main room can have a suite for Yan to live in, while your mother and I will live in the outer part. The north rooms will have two doors from the outside, with two rooms for Yang to use when he gets married, and one room for Fei to live in. The two south rooms can be used as a kitchen and a livestock room. Yes! It will cost about 13,000 yuan in total, and we can even buy a cow to raise at home. As for the courtyard wall, gatehouse, and furniture like beds, sofas, and cabinets, we can have a carpenter make them gradually. Yes! We can take it step by step. In the future, we will also have a TV, a tape recorder, and a motor tricycle."

Father spoke with such enthusiasm.

His eyes sparkled, filled with passion for life.

Just over a month ago, Father's face was always clouded with worry, and the sadness in his eyes was hard to dispel. Looking at Xiao Fei, he felt a deep sense of gratitude: If it weren't for his youngest son's abilities, their family wouldn't have such a bright future.

Thinking about how he had misunderstood Xiao Fei several times, Father felt very ashamed.

Xiao Fei was also deeply moved: The purchasing power of the RMB in 1996 was really strong! 13,000 yuan could build three houses, but after 2010, building a decent house in the countryside would cost at least 50,000 to 60,000 yuan.

The biggest increase in construction costs was in labor.

In 1996, in H Province, the labor cost for building a house was 15 to 20 yuan per day for skilled workers and 10 to 8 yuan per day for laborers.

By 2010, the cost for skilled workers had risen to 200 to 300 yuan per day, and for laborers, it was 100 to 150 yuan per day.

The labor cost had increased by more than ten times.

In other words, if the labor cost for building a house in 1996 was about 1,000 yuan, by 2010, it would be nearly 20,000 yuan.

Xiao Fei did not agree with Father's grand plan.

It was still too conservative.

To establish the Xiao family's reputation in the village, they needed to be more daring, to make a stunning impression that others couldn't catch up to!

"Father, I don't agree with your idea," Xiao Fei said.

"Oh? What do you think?" Father asked.

When Father asked, he was a bit nervous, as a significant portion of the money for building the house had been earned by Xiao Fei.

And they had two sons, Xiao Fei and Xiao Yang.

No matter what, the two brothers would eventually live separately. Would Xiao Fei be upset about how Father was using his money?

There were too many examples of siblings falling out over money.

Xiao Yang, who was always carefree, naturally didn't have such thoughts and echoed: "Yeah, Fei, what do you think?"

Xiao Fei stood up from his stool, took out a piece of paper from his schoolbag, and handed it to Father. On the paper was a rough sketch he had drawn.

He said, "Father, I think we should build a two-story house directly."

"Ah? A building?" Xiao Yang's mouth opened wide enough to fit a duck egg.

No one in Xili Village had built a two-story house yet.

If the Xiao family really built a two-story house, they would be the first, and it would truly be a moment of pride and relief.

Mother and Xiao Yan also looked at the sketch in Father's hand.

They saw a two-story building with a strange design. There were no stairs on the outside, and the second floor had no railing or door.

The family looked at each other, puzzled. What was this?

It was normal for the Xiao family to find the design of the small building strange.

Nowadays, when people in the countryside build houses, they simply stack two houses on top of each other, with doors on both the upper and lower floors, and the stairs built on the outside. This is called a single-faced building.

But what Xiao Fei had drawn was a sketch of a villa.

They had never seen anything like it.

"Is this a building?" Xiao Yang scratched his head and asked, frowning.

"Yes!" Xiao Fei explained with a smile, detailing how the rooms were arranged, how the stairs were planned, and how the second floor of the building could be protected from the scorching summer sun.

The family was a bit stunned after hearing Xiao Fei's explanation.

"How much would it cost to build such a building? I doubt the village construction team can do it," Father asked worriedly.

Xiao Fei had never intended to hire the village construction team. If he did, they would likely build something that looked like a monster, and it might not even be safe to live in.

"My classmate's father works in construction and is a project manager at a construction company in the county. I'll go to the county tomorrow and have him calculate the cost. Then I'll ask him to find some people to build it for us," Xiao Fei said.

Xiao Fei was referring to Yan Zhang's father. The family agreed when they heard this.

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