Chapter 147 The wooden house is built

"Qiangzi, I didn't expect you to be able to build a house!"

Xu Guangfu looked at the stable wooden frame in front of him and couldn't help but speak in surprise.

When he heard that Li Guoqiang was going to build a wooden house, he wanted to introduce Li Guoqiang to the bricklayer in Majiadian Commune who specialized in building houses. However, Li Guoqiang told him that he wanted to build it himself.

At that time, he was still somewhat suspicious whether Li Guoqiang was just trying to be rich.
Now that he saw that the frame of the wooden house had been built in just half a day, he had to admit that Li Guoqiang was indeed multi-talented.

He couldn't help but be curious about what skills Li Guoqiang had besides martial arts, marksmanship, knife skills, hunting, and house building. Was it possible for him to help the villagers of Jinshanbao live a good life?
"Harmful!"

When Li Guoqiang heard Xu Guangfu's praise, he quickly waved his hands and said modestly: "How can this be considered as building a house! At best, I can do a little carpentry work!"

"Carpentry?"

Xu Guangfu was slightly stunned, then asked with some surprise: "You also know carpentry?"

"Yup!"

Li Guoqiang glanced at his personal attribute panel and saw that his carpentry skill had reached level 6. He then said confidently, "Whether it's building a wooden house or making wooden furniture, it's no problem for me."

"and you."

Xu Guangfu's eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, "Then can you make a kang cabinet?"

"Yes!"

Li Guoqiang nodded, then asked with some confusion: "I remember the kang cabinet in your house is quite new, right? There should be no need to rebuild it, right?"

"It's not my house!"

Xu Guangfu shook his head, then explained in a deep voice: "You also know that in the spring of next year, the brigade will have to rebuild a new educated youth camp. If you can make kang cabinets and furniture, then we won't have to go to the commune to hire a carpenter!"

"That's daring!"

Li Guoqiang was delighted when he heard this, and then he quickly said, "Uncle Fu, just leave this job to me. It just so happens that I will also build a kang cabinet after I finish building the house."

"this."

Xu Guangfu hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll ask Changshun to get you some more wood. Apart from making two sets of kang cabinets for the educated youth, the remaining wood will be your labor fee."

"Got it!"

When Li Guoqiang saw that Xu Guangfu agreed, he couldn't help but reveal a happy smile on his face.

Since he has the wood to pay for the labor, he can just make one set for himself first and then make ten sets. Not only will it save trouble, but he can also get something for nothing. He can even let the villagers know that he can do carpentry, thereby improving his social status and giving him another way to make money.

In this way, he would be able to live a more prosperous life in front of outsiders in the future without having to worry about arousing any suspicion.

"Qiangzi, the grooves for those logs have been dug!"

"Really? Let me see!"

When Li Guoqiang heard Xu Yuchang's shout, he hurriedly took Xu Guangfu to the other side.

Soon he came upon wood stripped of its bark.

An arc-shaped groove was dug out on all of these woods, and ten-centimeter-long T-shaped pins were sawed out at both ends, just like the handles of an air pump.

Li Guoqiang checked carefully and found that the dimensions basically met the requirements. He immediately asked Xu Yuchang and others to help move the wood in and prepare to build the wooden wall.

At this time, except for the wall connected to the outer room, six wooden stakes were buried on the other three sides of the residential land, three inside and three outside, with the courtyard wall in the middle.

Moreover, grooves have been dug on these wooden stakes corresponding to each other, which are just big enough to accommodate T-shaped pins.

Next, just insert the wood with pins into the wooden stakes one by one and overlap them.

In this way, the two ends are fixed with wooden stakes, and there are arc-shaped grooves between the two pieces of wood, which not only can prevent wind and rain, but also appear to be very stable.

Soon, with everyone's busy work, most of the three wooden walls were successfully built, leaving only the wall corresponding to the outer room wall and two inverted triangle walls. They needed to wait until the roof beams were put up before additional wooden boards could be nailed on.

To this end, Li Guoqiang first made a simple pulley triangular crane, and then hoisted the processed wood one by one to erect the beams and roof.

Originally, according to him, he didn't plan to hold any beam-raising ceremony. After all, the housing land was not his, and the current social situation was quite tense, so it would be better to keep a low profile.

However, Qu Yinfeng secretly hid it from him and gave the firecrackers he had bought earlier to Xu Guangfu.

As a result, when he had erected the main beam with the help of others, a burst of firecrackers suddenly came from the gate of the courtyard, which almost scared him.

Then, before he could react, everyone started congratulating him.

Helplessly, he could only accept this kindness and asked Xu Yuchang to call his mother Yang Guoxiu, Xu Guanglu's wife Wang Lizhen, and Xu Guangfu's wife Tian Guixiang to help cook.

Then, after the beams were in place, he led everyone to lay the roof on top of the beams using reed stalks, curtains, and mud.

Because this job was a delicate one, it had to be done by him, a person with L5 construction skills. The others were responsible for helping to tie the reed handles and curtains, mixing the mud, passing things and assisting.

As the saying goes, there is strength in numbers, and with his skilled construction skills and extraordinary physical fitness, he worked hard and finally finished the roof before lunch.

Looking from the yard, ignoring the doors, windows and stove that have not yet been built, it has basically merged completely with the two houses next to it.

During the meal, Li Guoqiang took out half a jar of liquor that was left in the house, and paired it with the braised roe deer meat, spicy rabbit head, braised flying dragon and other hard dishes made by Qu Yinfeng and others, making everyone's faces glow and exclaiming how satisfying the meal was.

During this period, Xu Yuchang took the lead in making a fuss, saying that Li Guoqiang had now built a house and all he needed was to marry a wife to warm his bed. This immediately made Xu Yuping's heart rise to her throat.

Fortunately, Li Guoqiang immediately evaded the question by saying that she was not old enough to consider it, which allowed Xu Yuping to put her mind at ease again.

After the meal, everyone rested for a while on the kang in Qu Yinfeng's house while chatting and smoking, and then continued to work under the arrangement of Li Guoqiang.

Some of them are responsible for sawing the wood to make boards and drilling holes in the boards to facilitate nailing wooden nails on them later.

Another group of people were responsible for going to Xu Guangfu's house and bringing over the leftover adobe, fire bricks, bluestone slabs, sand and cement that he had used to build the kang, and giving them to Li Guoqiang to use to build the kang, build the stove and build the chimney.

Speaking of making a kang, it was commonplace for Xu Guangfu and others, but for Li Guoqiang, it was the first time for a young lady to get into a sedan chair.

If it weren't for his L5 construction skills, he probably wouldn't even understand the basic structure of the fire pit, let alone build a kang. According to the construction knowledge that Jin Dad taught him, he first used some adobe and mud to build the lower half of the wall connecting the fire pit inside the house and the stove outside, and then connected it tightly with the upper half of the wooden wall.

The reason why he couldn't use wooden walls was because the temperature generated by burning the kang was relatively high. In order to avoid the wood being ignited, he could only use adobe walls.

Moreover, since the temperature is high enough, there is no need to worry that this half of the wall will collapse due to thawing next year.

After the adobe walls were completed, he went on to build an adobe stove. Then, based on the height of the stove, he decided how high the kang should be raised with stones for the fire pit in the house.

It didn't take long before the stove was built.

Because there were no extra iron pots at home, he could only temporarily make a large clay pot and place it on the stove.

At the same time, under his arrangement, everyone used stones to build a 30-centimeter-high kang in the house, and then waited for him to smooth it with cement slurry. Then, on top of the kang, they used fire bricks and adobes to build N-shaped flues, which looked like a maze.

In fact, the principle of the fire pit is to use the smoke from the stove to heat the kang surface through the flue to achieve the purpose of keeping warm.

While he was building the chimney, everyone was not idle either. Some people were responsible for smearing mud on the three wooden walls and then hanging reed mats to completely isolate the cold wind and rain outside.

Another group of people were responsible for chiseling a smoke exhaust hole on the adobe wall at the back to connect the smoke duct of the kang and the chimney outside the house that had not yet been built.

By the time everyone finished these two tasks, Li Guoqiang had already laid the bluestone slabs on the flue and completed the construction of the fire pit.

Then he ran to the back of the house to build a chimney.

This chimney not only needs to have an ash chamber and ash removal door at the bottom like the flue head, but also a smoke plug plate must be installed in the middle of the chimney.

In this way, the flue can be prevented from being blocked and the hot smoke can be retained in the flue to achieve the effect of keeping warm all night.

Soon, Li Guoqiang built the chimney, then lit a small handful of firewood in the stove. While checking whether there was any smoke leaking, he used the temperature of the smoke to dry the cement slurry.

After some inspection, he found that there was no problem and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

At this time, everyone had cleaned the house inside and out, and then lined up to receive their wages from Xu Guangfu.

Originally, Li Guoqiang thought it would take at least two or three days to build the wooden house.

But who would have thought that Xu Guangfu would just call all the members of the Xu family and finish two or three days' work in one day.

Next, he just needed to install the doors and windows, find some flat stones, pave the floor of the house, and then he could move in.

However, before paving the ground, he had to secretly dig an underground passage.

Since there is a foundation under the wall of Qu Yinfeng's house, this underground passage has to be dug to a depth of at least three or four meters. This is not a simple project and it is estimated that it will take at least two or three days to complete it successfully.

During this period of time, the smell in the wooden house can be eliminated, so that people don't have to live in the smell of cement.

After seeing everyone off, Xu Yuping came up to him and asked with concern, "Qiangzi, you must be exhausted after a busy day. Come into the house and rest for a while. I'll go get some water for you to take a bath."

"Ah!"

Hearing this, Li Guoqiang waved his hands hastily, and said with a smile: "It's okay, I'm not tired yet. I can saw out the wood for the doors and windows before it gets dark."

"Okay, let Xiaoxia help you, I'll go boil water and cook!"

Seeing that Li Guoqiang was in good spirits, Xu Yuping did not try to persuade him but simply nodded and agreed. She also arranged for Zhu Caixia to work as a handyman for Li Guoqiang.

Li Guoqiang did not hesitate to take Zhu Caixia to cut wood.

Since he didn't have many carpentry tools at the moment, he just wanted to make a wooden door and a wooden leaf window this time to deal with it temporarily.

He opened the door in the middle near the outer room, and the window was above the stove, which was above the kang above the fire pit.

This saves trouble and ensures that there is enough light in the room.

Soon, he cut more than ten pieces of wood of different sizes, and then slowly sawed them into pieces of wood with a saw.

Zhu Caixia had been silently helping on the side, and seemed to have returned to her previous timid and taciturn state.

However, Li Guoqiang, who was concentrating on his work, did not notice this and just thought that Zhu Caixia was tired after a busy day.

Therefore, after sawing the wooden boards, he asked Zhu Caixia to go back to the house and rest first.

After Zhu Caixia returned to the house, he continued to busy himself with shaving the wooden board until it was smooth.

With his knife skills, it is not difficult to achieve this, it just takes some more time.

Soon, it was completely dark.

Seeing this, Xu Yuping hurried over and called Li Guoqiang into the house to eat.

After finishing her meal, she did not rush to take a shower, but prepared bath water for Li Guoqiang first.

After all, she and Li Guoqiang had already broken the window paper, so there was no need to do anything out of line in front of Qu Yinfeng, Zhu Caixia and Xu Dani.

While taking a shower, Li Guoqiang collected all the rewards he had accumulated from working hard today. Not only did he successfully upgrade his construction skills to the L6 level, he also eliminated his physical fatigue.

Then, while others were taking turns to take a bath, he sat on the kang and continued carving the puppet that he had not finished carving. Finally, he succeeded in carving the puppet before Zhu Caixia finished her bath.

When Zhu Caixia saw this lifelike puppet, all the emotions that she had been holding back for the whole day suddenly poured out like a flood, and she threw herself into Li Guoqiang's arms.

"Woo~"

"Uncle Qiangzi, I'm so scared. I'm so scared that you won't want me anymore!"

"Forehead"

When Li Guoqiang saw Zhu Caixia like this and smelled the faint scent of soap on her body, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

Then, he quickly reached out and patted her on the back, and said softly to comfort her: "You silly girl, we are all family, how could I not want you?"

(End of this chapter)