Chapter 756: Blasting Stones, Digging Foundations

After everyone finished eating, the 50 or so men split into three groups.

The first group was led by Wang Daliang and Wang Li, the father and son. The two of them each drove a walking tractor, pulling this group of people to the nearby stone mountain to haul stones.

This stone mountain isn't far. If nearby villagers want to use stones, they basically all come here to blast and haul them.

However, except for building pigpens and sheep pens, stones aren't of much use at this time.

Mainly because being near the forest area, there's no shortage of wood, and many things can be replaced by wood.

However, it is worth mentioning that this "blasting stones" is not that "blasting stones."

Because normal stone blasting uses detonators and explosives, while the locals' way of blasting stones uses fire and water.

Of course, this is just a name the locals have for the quarrying method. In fact, this quarrying method has been passed down since ancient times and is called the "fire-burning method."

Simply put, it means finding several suitable places on the side of the stone mountain, then using a large amount of wood to light a fire and burn it. Once it's burned enough, you pour water on it.

Under the alternation of cold and heat, the stones will directly crack and explode.

Finally, you use crowbars, pickaxes, sledgehammers, and drills to pry off the cracked stones.

The efficiency of this "fire-burning method" isn't very high, which is why it requires a large group of people to burn several places at once.

The second group was led by Great Uncle Wang Dashu, temporarily doing the work of hauling bricks.

That is, using Wang An's three horse-drawn carriages to haul bricks from the courtyard to the construction site.

This job can be said to have no technical content at all; anyone can do it.

And the reason it's called "temporarily" is because the trucks sent by Wu Dong to deliver sand, cement, and steel bars haven't arrived yet. Once they arrive, unloading the vehicles will definitely require quite a few people.

The third group, which was also the group with the highest technical content, was led by Wang Dazhu and Wang An, the father and son.

This group was composed of stonemasons, bricklayers, and carpenters from the village. They were doing the most important work, which was marking lines and digging foundations.

Normally, digging and tamping foundations is the most exhausting work. Fortunately, Wang An bought a bulldozer, a digging artifact, which made this job the easiest one instead.

Wang An drove the bulldozer to the construction site and directed everyone to start marking the lines.

Although he wasn't building a two-story building anymore, Wang An intended to build this house to the standard of a two-story building.

Simply put, although the finished house would be a normal brick-and-tile house, it would actually be a foundation for a building.

This way, when policies become more relaxed in the future and no one cares about those trivial matters, if Wang An wants to, he can continue building, adding a second floor.

Of course, a house is usually built as it is, and very few people continue to tinker with it after it's finished.

Even if they do tinker, it's just renovating the interior and exterior; the main structure basically won't change.

Mainly because this thing is both worrying and laborious, and it costs quite a bit of money, so no one wants to tinker with it.

It wasn't until last night that Wang An and his family finally decided on the blueprints for the house: changing the original two-story building with a 5-by-5 structure into two large brick houses, each with 5 rooms.

Wang An's idea was very simple: he and his wife would live in the five rooms on the west side, while his parents and younger siblings would live in the five rooms on the east side.

This way, it satisfied his mother's idea of splitting the family and living separately, while also satisfying his own idea of not wanting to split the family.

Either way, they are in the same courtyard; it's just living in separate rooms. In any case, as far as Wang An is concerned, splitting the family is impossible. Furthermore, building so many rooms has another benefit: as the younger siblings grow up, they can each have their own independent rooms, so they won't be crowded together.

So regarding the blueprints, Wang An just stated his ideas and then listened to the family's opinions. However, after listening, Wang An basically didn't make any changes.

Mainly because the family's thinking regarding the layout was a bit too small. If they followed their ideas, the house would have to be built in a cramped way.

A normal house has a north-south length of 7 to 8 meters, but Wang An designed it to be 10 meters based on the length of the beams at home.

Of course, the reason it's 10 meters also has a very beautiful meaning: "perfection."

However, although the width of the house is 10 meters, the rooms inside aren't like that, because the front and back need to be divided into a 4-6 split.

The room in the front for living is 6 meters long, and the room in the back for storing grain and flour is 4 meters long.

As for the outer room, it's the same; the front is used for receiving guests, and the back is the kitchen, because Wang An intends to build the kang against the north wall.

As Wang An directed everyone to finish marking the lines, questions immediately followed.

Only hearing the bricklayer Sun Xiangyang frown and say:

"Xiao An, this house of yours, a north-south span of ten meters, isn't that a bit too long? The room will definitely be cold."

Wang An chuckled upon hearing this and said:

"It's fine, it's divided inside. I plan to build a north kang, and the front room will be six meters, and the back room will be 4 meters."

Stonemason Li Laicai, upon hearing Wang An's words, said with an incredulous face: "Building a north kang here will definitely be cold; it will be damp and cold."

At this time, Wang Dazhu took the opportunity to interject: "Yeah, this kid has such a stubborn idea, insisting on building a north kang. You tell me, where do we build north kangs around here?"

Wang An smiled and retorted:

"Actually, the north kang is only warm during the day. When night falls, it's freezing cold by the window, and you can feel the draft by your feet."

Once Wang An finished speaking, the crowd fell into a brief silence.

Wang An looked at the crowd and then said with a chuckle again:

"When the time comes, I'll turn the wall on the north side of the kang into a fire wall, build a stove in the outer room specifically to heat this fire wall, and turn the ground under the room into a ground fire dragon. You think about it, how warm will this room be?"

This time, the crowd was silent for even longer, but soon, their eyes were all filled with light.

Only hearing the bricklayer Sun Xiangyang say with an excited face:

"This room design is simply amazing! Staying and sleeping in this room, it must be so comfortable!"

The crowd, having figured it out, also sighed one after another, and almost everyone said that when they build their own houses, they would build them like this too.

Only Wang Dazhu looked at the crowd blankly, truly not knowing why their attitude had changed so quickly.

Wang An didn't pick up the crowd's conversation, handed out a round of cigarettes, and said: "Dad, you guys direct me, I'm getting on the vehicle."

As he spoke, Wang An started the crawler tractor, climbed into the cockpit, and began pushing the foundation along the lines.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 757 =====