To attract customers, Qiao An'an used her strengths as a science student. The old house's wiring was dilapidated, so she took it upon herself to install solar batteries, re-wire, and install sockets and lighting fixtures on the old two-story building.
Five hundred thousand seems like a lot, but it doesn't last long.
The cost of materials alone took up more than half of the money.
Surprisingly, the labor cost was higher than the material cost.
To save costs, Qiao An'an did everything herself when renovating the house, painting the walls, laying tiles, assembling furniture she bought online, etc. She transformed the two-story villa built more than 20 years ago into a very livable modern style. Following suggestions from netizens, she also built a swimming pool, flower beds and lawn in the yard of about 100 square meters.
She quickly established herself as an independent woman.
There was a well in the yard, but it had been abandoned for many years. Thinking that using tap water to replace the swimming pool would be too wasteful of water, Qiao An'an asked workers to help clean up the abandoned well so that it would be easier to use water in the future.
Netizens also suggested that she cut down the several crooked fig, chestnut, nectarine, and persimmon trees in the yard and plant them with nice ornamental trees. Qiao An'an couldn't bear to do it. Firstly, these trees were already bearing fruit, and secondly, these fruit trees held too many of her childhood memories. Seeing these fruit trees would remind her of the scene of her family gathering under the trees to eat fruit during the harvest.
The courtyard looks amazing after the renovation.
The flowers in the flower bed are in full bloom, and after a gentle breeze, their fragrance lingers on the lush green lawn.
As more and more people joined the live stream, Qiao An'an's divorce and childcare resonated with many viewers, prompting many kind-hearted netizens to leave encouraging messages. Some even commented that it's dangerous for Qiao An'an to live alone with her child in a place without any surrounding buildings, and that security measures should be implemented.
Qiao An'an thought they made a lot of sense.
Located in a suburban area, their rent is much cheaper than in the city. It only takes about half an hour by bus to get to the city center. Many migrant workers choose to rent houses here and take the bus to work in the city.
The area is crowded and diverse, and since she lives in an old house, unlike the resettlement community across the street which has property management and security guards, it's not very safe.
So, Qiao An'an bought bricks, tiles, and concrete, and hired workers to build a 50-centimeter-thick, nearly four-meter-high stone wall around the yard. She also added a lot of glass shards to the wall. She didn't waste the remaining bricks and cement either. Following online tutorials, she built a multi-functional rural stove that could be used for stir-frying, cooking, grilling, and baking.
This move generated a lot of buzz.
This also allowed Qiao An'an to make a small profit.
This money was enough to send Yaya to kindergarten after autumn. Knowing that her daughter Yaya loved to eat meat, Qiao An'an went to the market to buy half a pig as soon as she got the money, so she could cook meat for Yaya every day.
She had just placed the pork on the cutting board when she heard the news from the relevant departments about the outbreak of the zombie virus.
At first, she thought someone was joking with them through a loudspeaker, but then she saw the milkman outside the wide-open gate, his grayish-white dead fish eyes rolling back, making gurgling sounds, clearly already in an infected zombie state.
Ya Ya, who had just celebrated her third birthday, was completely unaware of the danger and happily waved to the milkman, shouting, "Milk, Ya Ya wants milk!!!"
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