The house that Xu Chenghou and his wife had their eyes on was not small.
You know, in his previous life, Xu Shi first built three rooms there, and later Xu Shiyan built three more rooms next to each other. How can the place be small?
So what Xu Shiyan meant was to do a lot of work and not miss out on one and a half rooms. He might as well build five rooms to occupy the space.
Xu Chenghou and his wife were hesitant at first. To build five brick houses, all in all, it would cost seven to eight hundred yuan, and the family money was not enough.
Xu Shiyan said that if it didn't work, he would help cushion it first, and wait for the four brothers to come back and ask them to contribute a share of the money.
Xu Chenghou thought about it and felt that since he was busy for a while, he might as well build a big one.
The parents there want to build five rooms, and Xu Shiyan also plans to build five brick houses on the west side of the property.
Calculated this way, the two ends add up to ten houses, which requires a lot of materials, and the labor is also quite troublesome.
Nowadays, unlike in the big house before, when all five brothers were together, they could do a lot of work at home and find help for the rest.
If all these ten houses were to be built with labor, it would take years and months to build them.
So Xu Shiyan was cruel and found Guo Shouye and asked him to help find the construction team of the Forestry Bureau, that is, Lin Jian.
The ten houses of the Xu family were directly contracted to Lin Jian for construction. They were professionals and their work was much better than just hiring help.
Anyway, the labor is a little more expensive, but it is expensive for a reason. With a professional construction team, the quality of the houses built is also guaranteed.
This would have been impossible if it had been anyone else.
Lin Jian is a public company. He only works for the government, so how can he build a house for an individual?
But if it were Guo Shouye, there would be no problem. With a few cartons of cigarettes and a few bottles of deer antler blood wine, the relationship that needed to be separated would be done.
Lin Jian, on the other hand, took over the private work of the Xu family by taking the opportunity to build a public house for a certain forest farm.
Anyway, Lin Jian has plenty of workers, so he can make extra money as a big guy.
The leaders at the top turn a blind eye and the workers at the bottom get benefits, so what else is there to be unhappy about?
Bricklaying and carpentry are all included, as are laying the kang, building the stove, and the interior and exterior walls. The labor is a little more expensive, but it saves you worry.
After all the materials were prepared, Xu Shiyan didn't need to worry about anything else. Only on the day of the beam ceremony, he had to find some people to help with the work and take care of the meals. Xu Shiyan didn't have to worry about the rest.
Xu Shiyan really had no choice. His father was on the mountain looking at ginseng, and both brothers were too busy to spare time.
Not to mention the two younger brothers, one teaches and the other goes to school, who can come over to work?
Not to mention working, there was no one following Zhang Luo, all had to point to Xu Shiyan alone.
He doesn't have eight hands, so how can he do this?
The best way is to outsource everything. As long as the work is completed before autumn and the old couple can move in this year, we really can't take care of the rest.
Just like that, on June 6th, the twelfth day of the fifth lunar month, the ground was broken for two houses and the foundations were dug.
At the same time, carpenters also began to make beams, doors and windows, etc.
Some of the woodworking materials were brought from the big house.
After all, the Xu family has been living in the Northeast for so many years. They have saved a lot of wood among other things. When they moved, they even brought a cart with wood and firewood.
The other part is the wood Xu Shiyan put on the mountain last autumn and winter.
The wood was peeled off at that time, and after a winter and a spring, it was almost completely dry.
I found a car and pulled it down a few days ago, and it was suitable for making beams, purlins, shed poles, etc.
After working hard for many days, I finally got the house settled. All materials were prepared and the carpenters and bricklayers made their own arrangements.
At home, Zhou Guilan and Su Anying are responsible for boiling water, hot meals, etc. for the workers, and try to take good care of them.
In this way, the Xu family's house was built slowly and orderly.
Xu Shiyan is busy fertilizing and fertilizing in the team, as well as building a house at home. This year, he doesn't have time for either Niu Maoguang or Gastrodia elata.
Fortunately, Xu Shiyan took the time to go to the county and sold all the twenty or so dried deer antlers.
The best quality velvet antler costs thirty-eight yuan a tael, and each dried velvet antler costs about two and a half to three taels, which can be purchased for about one hundred yuan.
In the end, I got more than 2,400 yuan, which was more than enough to build a house.
It was late July when I was busy with work, and Xu Shixiang came back from Tonghua.
With Lao Wu as a helper, Xu Shiyan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. At least there was someone watching from the other side of the house, so he could free up his hands to work on the land.
On July 26, the third day of the sixth lunar month, the Xu family's house was built with beams.
Xu Shixian and Xu Shi'an both took leave and came over. Xu Shide came over after his summer vacation and has been helping here.
Not only the Xu brothers, but also Zhou Guilan's nephews, Su Weizhong, Su Weicheng and other relatives living in Daying also came to help.
Xu Shiyan did well in Donggang Commune and made friends with many people. The apprentices he brought also came to help when they learned that the Xu family needed to build a house with beams.
Even Han Limin came here specially after hearing about it.
Fortunately, there are many people. There are a total of ten houses on both sides, and they all need to be tiled. If there are few people, it is really not enough.
So, the manpower was divided into two groups, each with a carpenter and bricklayer, and started working.
Liang Zhen had already finished it, and the main beam in the middle was tied with red cloth strips and copper coins.
Xu Shide wrote two couplets about Liang Daji in advance and pasted them on the brick wall.
Someone was holding a bunch of firecrackers and standing on the shelf, and another person was holding a small basket filled with candies.
The carpenter directed people to lift the middle main beam to the roof, and then used various tools to correct the direction and fix the position.
At the same time, someone lit firecrackers.
There was a crackling sound, accompanied by red confetti flying all over the sky, and the smell of burning sulfur was in the air.
The man carrying the basket sprinkled candies one by one, and a group of children below came over to grab them.
Building a house and raising beams is also a big event. It is a festive and lively event. No one would mind if the children are causing trouble and they will all smile and watch them grab candies.
Others will go to the basket to grab another handful and give it to the children who didn't grab it.
After the main beam is fixed, the other beams are then lifted up, the direction and position are found, and then they are nailed diagonally with wooden poles or boards, also called lazi.
After all the beams are fixed, the purlins, eight planks, shed poles, and shed boards are nailed.
The Xu family built a brick house with a new structure, with tiles on the top and a white ash shed on the bottom.
In order to keep warm, a layer of mixture of yellow mud and sawdust is applied to the shed board, and then covered with a thick layer of sawdust.
In this way, the workload will be much greater, but fortunately there are so many people here to help.
Everyone divided the work and cooperated according to the requirements of the foreman, each doing their own work, in an orderly manner, without any chaos, and the progress was very fast.
By about one o'clock at noon, all the tiles were hung up and all the shed mud and sawdust were compacted.
According to the rules, on the day of the beam ceremony, the master's family must prepare a sumptuous banquet to entertain those who come to help.
Xu Shiyan also spent a lot of thought on today's meal.
Xu Shiqin had saved up the meat tickets for several months, plus the tickets given by Guo Shouye, and gave them all to Xu Shixiang.
One day in advance, I went shopping for meat in Songjiang River and various grocery stores in the county. I bought it for free, and people of all ages bought it.
In addition, there is everything in the vegetable garden this season, so this meal is very rich.