Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 51 The house is built
  After lunch amid laughter, we continued building a house in the afternoon.

The foundation was completed at about two o'clock, and the stone paving was thirty centimeters above the ground.

Accompanied by the crackling of firecrackers, the two door frames stood up.

"Okay!"

"Make a fortune!"

"everything goes well!"

Everyone sent their blessings, and many people looked at the brand new door with envy.

There are many houses in the village like Lin Heng's house where more than a dozen people live in one house.

Lin Heng and his family have built a new house, but they don't know when it will be possible to build it.

"Okay, now we are starting to open the wall, everyone, please work harder." Carpenter Liang said and arranged for people to start work.

Place the [-]-centimeter-wide wooden frame on the stone foundation, pour half of the loess on it, and then a few people start smashing it with big wooden hammers.

After pounding it firmly, you can add acorn trees that serve as steel bars. These acorn trees can be horizontal or vertical. They serve as a skeleton and make the earth wall stronger.

The loess required here should not be too wet or too dry. Generally speaking, it is best to pinch it with your hands, loosen it and spread it out slowly.

In the dialect, it is called a mouse wound, which is the slightly moist feeling.

Although it is a sunny day today, compared with the recent rain, the loess on the ground is still very wet and cannot be used.

Normally, we take dry loess and mix it with water soaked in glutinous rice flour to make mouse wounds. Today we can only mix some glutinous rice flour into it and add some white ash that the owner of the brick factory brought when he brought up the terracotta tiles.

Since the soil was too wet today, we only built a [-]-centimeter-high wall in the afternoon.

The next day, the soil had dried a lot, and after adding some glutinous rice flour, it could be dried directly. In one day, Lin Heng's house had been completed to a height of three and a half meters.

When you reach this height, you can lay the floor pillows for the second floor. The floor pillows are relatively long and thick pieces of wood. The surface is slightly carbonized, then brushed with tung oil, and then you can put it on the wall.

The general spacing is two meters. After the installation is completed, the wooden boards on the second floor can be continued to be laid.

The floor pillows had already been completed. It only took ten minutes to construct on the morning of April [-]th. After that, we continued to build the wall.

During this day, the wall was raised another three meters, and after the triangle shape was harvested, the wall was considered complete.

On the morning of the [-]th, another firecracker was set off, and the beam of Lin Heng's house was erected. An eight-meter-long elm beam, carbonized at both ends and painted with tung oil.

"Good luck to you!!"

Everyone shouted loudly.

Father Lin gave out a lot of candies for everyone to pick up. The children and women who came to the village were very happy.

Lin Heng was watching on the ground, Xiulan was holding her daughter and looking at the house, wondering what she was thinking.

"Show me your hand!"

Lin Heng suddenly grabbed Xiulan's hand, spread it out and looked at it carefully. Fortunately, although the palm of the hand was calloused, there were no wounds or ruptures.

"What's wrong?" Xiulan looked at him doubtfully.

Lin Heng smiled slightly, shook his head and said, "It's okay, your good days are coming, and you won't even have calluses on your hands from now on."

The house reminded him of his past life.

The house built in his previous life was larger than this one. After the separation, Xiulan relied on Xiulan for everything, so he just wandered around idle and later ended up with debts.

Xiulan worked from dawn to dusk, her hands were all covered with cuts, her body was sore all day long, and she didn't eat well. She couldn't eat a single meal of meat in two months, and she was so thin that she could fall down if the wind blew.

How could a body like this not get sick? In the end, he couldn't afford it, and he only discovered all this after his wife died.

Only when you lose it can you know how to cherish and regret.

This will never happen again in this life, Lin Heng clenched his fists and said secretly.

Xiulan looked at him and said a little strangely: "Have you got scum in your eyes again?" "Yes." Lin Heng chuckled.

"It's good to be like this these days. If the two of us work together, our family will definitely be rich in the future." Xiulan said slowly while looking at Lin Heng.

These two days were just like what she had imagined in her dreams.

God has been kind to him these past few days, and it has been sunny all the time. After the main beam was installed, Lin Heng left three uncles and carpenters here to help install the side beams, rafters, and order the wooden strips.

In half a morning, all this work was done. The uncle looked at Lin Heng and shouted: "You and your elder brother help move the tiles, and put them up quickly."

"Okay!" Lin Heng couldn't be lazy and asked his elder brother to help move the tiles.

Earthen houses are most afraid of water. The loess becomes harder as it dries out, and becomes softer and damper when it rains, so the roof must be sealed first.

Lin Heng was so tired from moving pottery that his back ached and his legs were shaking. If he hadn't eaten well these days, he really wouldn't be able to continue working.

Fortunately, he had endured all the hardships he had to endure in his previous life, and he could still overcome the physical pain.

In the afternoon, when the setting sun was shining and half of the sky turned red, Lin Heng's house tile roof had been completed. It reflected red light in the sun, and he was no longer afraid of rain.

"The decline started from the new house in my previous life, and the rise starts from here in this life!" Lin Heng said secretly in his heart while sitting on the roof, looking at the sunset.

On his eldest brother's side, the pillows on the second floor have also been installed, and the roof construction should be completed the day after tomorrow.

After walking down, Lin Heng looked at his house. It was a very traditional earthen house with one door and six windows, three on the first floor and three on the second floor.

These were the only six windows that were made at his request, because the current windows are all made of wood, which are easy to damage and have poor sealing properties. If they are opened too much, the room will be unsafe and cold.

Usually only one or two windows are opened.

After the main body is completed, the next step is the internal construction, which also takes a lot of time.

The house is definitely still uninhabitable. The earthen walls have just been dried, the doors and windows are not fastened properly, the floor in the house is not tidied, and the earthen wall of the yard is not fenced.

Early on the morning of the 12th, Lin Heng began to clean up his house. Even if it was a temporary residence, he had to make it in line with his own aesthetics and habits.

"Carpenter Liang, the two windows in the yard are hinged windows. I prefer windows that can be opened.

The window at the back facing the west should be the type that was nailed shut and could not be opened. "

Lin Heng looked at the carpenter doing carpentry and said.

"No problem." Carpenter Liang nodded with a smile. He was also willing to do this kind of more difficult work. It takes longer and the wages are more.

"Lin Heng, please help me pass the board!" the uncle shouted from upstairs.

"Okay!" Lin Heng quickly handed over the board.

Uncle Lu Honghai took it over and placed it on the pillow on the floor.

The wooden floor on the second floor has not been painted with tung oil yet, but it doesn't matter. It can be painted once after ordering it.

Except for the floor in the main room, which is only half booked, the other rooms are sealed.

After the floor slabs were ordered, Lin Heng came over to deal with the floor. The floor in the house had already been hammered solid, so there was no need to hammer anymore.

Lin Heng moved the unused stones for the foundation, laid them on top, and flattened them with a hammer.

There is no cement to solidify, and there are no floor tiles, so we can only use stones. The pure earth ground is too uncomfortable, and it is impossible to stand on even a little water.

"You have a good idea and it looks pretty good." Carpenter Liang praised.

Nowadays, most people's homes have direct loess floors without paving anything. Lin Heng's way of doing it makes it really beautiful.

"It's okay." Lin Heng chuckled.

　I recommend a book by a friend. If you are bored, you can read it.

(End of this chapter)