Chapter 58 Chapter 58 Building a House
'Attention, reverse, attention, reverse--'
The reversing warning sound echoed in the leveled open space.
Ning Shaoming stood at the left rear of the truck, waving his hands and directing: "Back off, a little further, a little further, that's enough!"
The reversing warning sound stopped, the truck came to a complete stop, and the door opened.
Ning Shaoming doesn't smoke, but he has two packs of good cigarettes in his pocket and he gives one to everyone he sees.
He took out the cigarettes he had prepared in his pocket and handed them to the driver: "Thank you for your hard work, brother. You are still delivering goods to my house during the New Year. Don't leave in a hurry. You must have dinner here before going back, okay?"
The driver said politely, "I'm so sorry, I've already cooked at home. I can still make it in time for dinner after unloading the goods and driving back."
Ning Shaoming advised again: "It takes a lot of energy to drive. If you eat here, you will almost use up all the food by the time you drive home. You can have something cooked at home as a midnight snack. I just bought a lamb from someone today. Half of it is stewed and the other half is roasted. It would be a pity if we can't finish it if there are not enough people. This food must be eaten fresh. It will be stale the next day."
The driver took a puff of his cigarette, thought for a few seconds with a bit of reserve, and then nodded: "Okay, brother, you check the goods. If there is something wrong, I can tell the boss in time. Do you have a phone here?"
"Yes, there is a telephone at home. Come over here, brother. There are tables and chairs over there. Have some tea and take a break." Ning Shaoming led the driver to a temporary shed that was intended to be used as a kitchen and poured him a cup of tea.
Yesterday, on the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, Ning Shaoming sent Huang Wenfa and his group away early in the morning, and then immediately went to find someone to come to his homestead to clear a piece of ground for placing the steel bars.
Two small sheds were also built. One of the small sheds was a temporary toilet and was built in the leeward direction.
One is this shed that serves as a makeshift kitchen.
During the day, the shed serves as a kitchen, providing two meals and clean tea to the people who help build the house.
Ning Shaoming has to sleep here at night to watch over things, otherwise the steel bars in their house may easily disappear.
The social atmosphere has not been very good in recent years, and there are many petty thefts.
After settling the driver, Ning Shaoming chatted with him for a few minutes before going to check the goods. The boss selling steel bars was quite reliable when it came to treating people from his hometown.
There was no problem with the quantity and quality of the items delivered. After Ning Shaoming checked the goods, he signed the delivery note very happily.
He went directly to the post office in town to send the balance to his boss, then made a copy of the remittance slip and gave it to the driver, asking the driver to take it back to his boss, and the payment for the batch of goods was settled.
The people who were asked to help removed the steel bars and then went on to do other things.
The main focus these days is laying the foundation. They may want to build a second, third, or even fourth floor in the future, so the foundation is also being dug based on a maximum of four floors.
The self-built houses in the town are not like the country mansions of the rich. They do not have elevators, and building to the fourth floor is considered very high. Currently, there are only two families whose houses have been built to the fourth floor.
One of them is the family of the steel bar seller who has established a firm foothold in the county town, and the other is the family of Zhao Ruyue’s third uncle, who runs a medical clinic.
There are more three-story buildings, but only slightly more than four-story buildings.
Most families who demolished their brick and tile houses to build high-rise buildings only built two floors. A large number of them did not have enough money but still built two floors. They would build a bare house and then move their old furniture into it and live in it.
They only installed a front door, but couldn’t even install room doors and windows.
The windows can only be sealed with tarpaulins, and the doors of the rooms can be blocked with cloth curtains. After the house is built, one has to go out to work to earn money for the decoration.
When Ning Shaoming asked someone to draw lines and divide the residential land yesterday, the neighbors who came to watch the fun saw that he had marked out such a large area for building a house, and suggested that it would be better to build a two-story house, with the upper floor for the owner and the lower floor for opening a shop for business, and the empty space could be used as a vegetable garden to grow vegetables.
With such a large piece of land, if you can’t finish eating the vegetables you grow, you can pick some to sell at the market.
Many people in the town do this, and it does save costs, but there is also a problem, which is that the business area and the living area are easily mixed together.
Opening a store will definitely require stockpiling some raw materials. Reducing the area of the house means that there will not be enough space to store the raw materials, or even no separate warehouse at all, which will inevitably encroach on the family's living space, such as the living room and children's room.
The comfort of living in the house is greatly reduced, and children cannot have their own privacy.
Many parents often don't pay attention to these things, but Zhao Ruyue specifically mentioned them to Ning Shaoming when she was planning the house.
They also asked their child what she thought of the new home. Their daughter hoped to continue sleeping with her parents, but was unfortunately rejected by the two heartless adults.
Ning Shixia had to change it to: "I hope the room is bigger, and there should be a big cabinet that can hold lots of toys."
This request was agreed by the parents.
The son's idea was beyond the expectations of both parents.
Although Ning Shiqiu threatened his father when he was a child that he would not poop if he didn't build a clean and good toilet, this matter would be brought up as a joke from time to time.
But this time when building a new house, the ideas he came up with were still related to the toilet.
He hopes that outsiders will not use his toilet because it will become dirty and he doesn't like it.
Ning Shiqiu loves reading, and Zhao Ruyue thought he would ask them to build a large bookcase for his room that could hold many books.
Ning Shiqiu's request was not excessive, so Ning Shaoming and Zhao Ruyue agreed.
So even though their house is only one floor, they have two toilets.
One at home and one at the store.
The house is in the shape of a Chinese character "回", with two small rooms on each side, which are used as warehouses for storing raw materials.
The left side is close to the woods, the right side is close to the road, and there is an open space in the middle of the house where you can grow vegetables.
The store is in the front row facing the street, and their own house is in the back row near the woods.
There are two doors for entry and exit, one of which is the store front, but customers can only stay in the store after entering and cannot go to the back.
Because the door leading to the living area at the back of the store is located behind the cash register, customers are generally not allowed to enter or exit.
Another door was opened between the two small houses on the left side near the woods, allowing family members to enter and exit without having to pass through the store.
There is no door on the right wall close to the road, and this side is close to the road and easily attracts the attention of passers-by, so in the future we will build a sunshade and rainproof shed against the wall, put a few tables under the shed to provide seats for guests.
The people who were invited to help began to work enthusiastically according to the drawn lines.
Ning Shaoming went into the shed and prepared dinner while chatting with the delivery driver.
The lamb that is intended to be roasted should be marinated with seasonings and spices, as well as things that can remove the fishy smell.
Most of the sheep here are goats, which have a stronger smell than sheep, and require a variety of spices to remove the smell.
However, the mutton that has just been slaughtered is very fresh, so the half used for stewing does not need to be blanched, and there is not much foam. After boiling, skim off the tiny bit of foam and then switch to low heat to simmer slowly.
An hour later, the aroma of the mutton soup gradually became stronger and permeated the entire construction site.
The delivery driver, who had already left the shed and was wandering around the construction site, couldn't help but come back. He drank tea, but his eyes were always looking towards the soup pot.
Ning Shaoming opened the soup pot and took a look. The time was not enough and the soup was not cooked enough, but it was not impossible to drink it now.
No salt was added during the stewing process. Ning Shaoming served a bowl of mutton soup, added a little salt and chopped green onions and coriander, and handed it to the driver who was swallowing his saliva quietly: "Brother, please help me taste it to see if it is tasty enough. If you like spicy food, there is also chili oil that I made myself. You can add it according to your taste."
The driver said, "Oh, that's embarrassing. Others who are working haven't had a chance to drink yet, but I drank first." But his hands didn't hesitate at all.
He took the soup bowl, blew on it, and drank a sip impatiently, giving Ning Shaoming a thumbs up: "Delicious! Your cooking skills are really good!"
Ning Shaoming was preparing the other half of the lamb to be roasted, and said modestly, "It's OK. I barely learned it for a while. Now, I plan to open a shop here to sell food after the house is built. Otherwise, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to find someone to build a house before the Lantern Festival."
"That's what I thought. No wonder you were in such a hurry to get the goods. But if you weren't in such a hurry to get the goods, I wouldn't have come here on my turn and had such delicious mutton soup. It was another driver who came here before."
Ning Shaoming saw that the soup in his bowl was almost finished, so he scooped another spoonful of soup and meat: "Drink more, I'm happy if someone likes to drink it!"
The driver smiled with delight.
Ning Shaoming took the opportunity to ask, "Brother, you have been in this business for so long, you must know a lot of people in the same field, right?"
The driver swallowed the meat in his mouth and nodded, saying: "I can't say how many I know, but after working in this industry for a long time, I know a few."
"Can you do me a small favor?" Ning Shaoming took out a stack of business cards. "You don't have to do a special favor. If you meet someone in the same business as you, give them your business card and tell them that my store is a legitimate business and I won't cheat people. If you are thirsty or hungry when you pass by, you can stop and rest."
No matter how this place develops in the future, its current location is definitely not as good as the old house.
If you want to build your business steadily, you can’t just sit back and wait like a store with a good location and a lot of traffic.
When Ning Shaoming and Zhao Ruyue were discussing, they thought of the truck driver.
This side is close to the fork in the road leading in and out of the town. There are not many small cars here, but there are many trucks carrying goods. The routes of many drivers' sports cars hardly change in a short period of time. It may seem that they do not have a stable customer base, but in fact it is quite stable.
The purchasing power of this group of people is also strong. Besides being afraid of car accidents and vehicle breakdowns, the most worrying thing for freight drivers on the way is that their cargo and the oil in the tank will be stolen when they stop to eat. Therefore, they are very cautious in choosing where to stop and eat.
After confirming that a certain place is safer, as long as the food there is good, they will always give priority to that place when running this route.
Therefore, if these freight drivers can be attracted over, they will serve as a stable source of customers.
Compared with waiting for them to find your store themselves, letting their peers introduce them will definitely help them build trust faster.
Ning Shaoming's request was indeed a trivial matter for the driver.
Considering his always good attitude, the delicious mutton soup, and the roasted lamb that looks like it should be delicious too.
The driver took the stack of business cards and agreed to the small request.
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