Chapter 38 Let’s Build a House Here
Sang Yu nodded, she also preferred to move here.
The shack at the foot of the mountain is just a temporary residence forced by the situation. Apart from being close to the mountains and forests, it has no other advantages, and those advantages are not necessarily all advantages.
It is late autumn now and many problems have not yet emerged. If we wait until next summer, mosquitoes and rainy season will both be big troubles.
She had observed that some of the houses in the canyon were very old. It seemed that people had lived here for many years, so no sudden accidents would happen.
"Then our next step is to start selecting a site and build a framework as soon as possible."
A house cannot be easily built in a few days. With their current financial and material resources, building a brick house is out of the question. Building a thatched house is difficult. The best they can do is build a mud-walled house similar to the wall of a shed.
"Shouldn't we ask the village chief first if there are any taboos?" Sang Yongjing was a scholar, so he followed the rules.
Sang Yu waved her hand: "I've asked, as long as it's not built next to those thatched houses, any other place is fine."
She didn't just wander around the village aimlessly before, she found out a lot of things.
"Then we will build it next to the stream like they did, so it will be convenient for daily water collection and use."
Sang Yongjing was talking about the huts built along the stream, which were of different heights and shapes, and each one was closer to the stream than the other.
"No!" Sang Yu shook his head like a rattle, his attitude firm.
"Why?"
"Dad, look." Sang Yu pointed to the thatched houses. Sang Yongjing looked over but couldn't see any deep meaning in them.
"Those thatched houses are built far away from the stream. I have reason to suspect that the stream will flood in the summer, and the flood will be very severe."
All rivers have flood seasons, especially now in the south, where there are many heavy rains in the summer.
The small stream that is flowing slowly now may turn into a big river during the flood season.
Even though Sang Yongjing had never seen the river flood with his own eyes, he knew that every summer flood caused countless deaths and injuries on both sides of the river, and the imperial court had to release grain to provide disaster relief every summer.
When he heard that the water would rise here, he immediately panicked: "Flood? What should we do then? Shouldn't we build a house here?"
Sang Yu comforted him, "Father, there's no need to worry so much. We just need to avoid building it near the stream."
"Where else can we build it?" Sang Yongjing's eyes moved back and forth in the canyon, but he couldn't find a place for them to build a house.
Sang Yu raised his hand and pointed to the front of the canyon: "There."
Everything must be planned before it is decided. Since she has decided to build a house here, she naturally has to make all the necessary preparations.
If a stream is flooded, you must not build houses on its banks. Otherwise, when a flood comes, all your hard-earned wealth will be wiped out in an instant.
But the high places near the mountain wall have all been occupied, so where can they go?
With this question in mind, Sang Yu walked through the canyon carefully and really found many good places.
The entire canyon is surrounded by two mountains, and the overall shape looks like a narrow water drop that is pointed at the top and wide at the bottom.
Both the entrance they had just entered and the entrance on the other end were quite narrow.
The residents on both sides of the river built their houses close to the mountain wall, and because the other end was the entrance where the stream flowed in, it was too dangerous when the water rose.
No one dares to build a house nearby, and rarely does anyone even get close to it on weekdays.
So there was a place that they overlooked. It was a semi-concave mountain wall. From a distance, you could see that it was a concave semicircle.
The space inside the semicircle is not small, with the inside being high and the outside being low. The mountain walls on both sides can effectively withstand the impact of water flow during rising water.
It would be nice to build a house inside.
Sang Yongjing went in and took a look around, still a little hesitant: "Is it really safe here? It won't be flooded, right?"
The terrain here is really strange. If it is really a good place, why don’t other people come here to build houses?
Sang Yu came to the mountain wall and pointed to a position about ten centimeters above the ground, where there was a very obvious boundary between light and dark.
"Dad, look here. This is the mark left by the creek. It means the water level here is only this high at most."
"When we built the house, we raised it slightly and added a threshold, so there's no need to worry at all."
Perhaps other people have discovered this place, but firstly, it is close to the entrance and it is more dangerous. Secondly, water will flood in and easily damage the house.
That's why it has been vacant all this time, and now it's a good deal for them.
"That makes sense. Then let's build a house here?" Sang Yongjing didn't know how to build a house. He came here mainly to take a look at the surrounding environment. If the decision really had to be made, it would be Sang Yu.
Sang Yu nodded gently: "It's right here. We'll move in as soon as it's finished."
Sang Yu is not an expert at building a house, but he knows the most basic steps.
First dig the foundation pit, then build the foundation, build the beams, columns and walls, and cover the roof, and a simple bungalow is built.
Their existing conditions were poor, so they had to keep things simple. They were not building a two-story building, so they did not need a foundation pit.
Simply dig pits at the four corners, bury the load-bearing pillars, build walls with bamboo and mud, and remember to fill the ground with soil, raise the floor inside the house, and then weave the roof with reeds.
This is just one room. If it were according to Sang Yu's idea, it would be best to build four bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet.
Regardless of whether there is enough space, according to her idea, the process of building the house will probably take one or two months, and she simply can't wait.
She also knew that her idea was a bit unrealistic, so she had to compromise and build a total of three rooms.
There are two bedrooms and a kitchen, but if you separate them inside, there will be six separate spaces.
In this way, as long as time permits, try to give everyone their own space.
Each room needs load-bearing columns at the four corners and in the middle, which have to be made from whole pieces of chopped wood, and this is also the most troublesome part.
Three rooms would require at least eighteen sticks, which is not a small number.
Sang Yu had thought about this too. They could cut the wood themselves, but how would they transport it? Even if the whole family worked together, they couldn't carry a single piece. They would definitely have to hire someone to help, and that meant paying them.
Sang Yongjing was also worried, but he was thinking about different things from her.
He reached out and dug at the ground twice, only to find that the soil was very hard. Even with great effort, he could only dig up a little dirt. How could he build a house with this?
Both the father and daughter frowned and said nothing, lost in thought.
Suddenly, someone behind me asked, "Are you planning to build a house here?"
The two were startled and turned around vigilantly, only to see a man leaning against the stone wall, stretching his head and looking at them curiously.
He was a boy who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a little baby fat on his face and round eyes, which made people feel close to him.
"Who are you?" Sang Yu asked with a frown, wondering how this person found out they were here.
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