Chapter 265: Chapter 265: Discussion
Opening the kitchen door, a very life-like, rustic smell of alcohol, cigarettes, and firewood hit my face.
There were nearly twenty people sitting in the room. Feng Yiping took a quick look around and realised that they were all shopkeepers who had become rich first in the village. Everyone was gathered around two braziers, smoking if they smoked, drinking tea if they drank tea, listening to the two men arguing, or chatting with the people next to them, or adding a few words in agreement.
What were the two arguing about? One said that when building a house, you had to use concrete for the roof to be sturdy, while the other said that prefabricated concrete panels would do. In fact, it didn't really matter, but they had had some wine and were in front of so many people, so it looked like they had to argue until one of them won.
When Feng Yiping came in, he greeted Fourth Uncle, who was sitting by the door, first, 'Yiping, you're back!'
The two arguing men also stopped and greeted him with a smile, 'The great writer is back!'
'Yiping is now unstoppable. He is the first person in our Feng family to be able to make a living writing.'
'That's right, he will definitely be even more unstoppable in the future.'
Feng Yiping smiled and nodded to them, walked over to Feng Zhenchang and the others, took a small bench and sat down, "Is everything going well?" Feng Zhenchang and the others next to him all moved their stools back a little to let Feng Yiping get closer to the fire.
'Not bad.'
'Yiping, I heard you went by plane. Tell us about it,' Feng Mingzhi next to him asked him.
'Yes, how did it rise? Were you dizzy when it rose?' The fourth uncle, a former private teacher who had taught in the village primary school for decades, was also very interested in this.
The others also paused in their arguments for the time being. Just a few years ago, just seeing a train was enough to make conversation in the village, and they had never even ridden in one. Now, for them, who had only recently laid down their hoes, flying was really something new.
'It's not that special. Your head will get a little dizzy when you're ascending, but once you're above the clouds, it's even more stable than riding in a car,' Feng Yiping could only compare it to that.
'Have we already gone above the clouds?' Many people looked wistful, because flying is truly the greatest dream of mankind.
'Uncle Si, is there any unified planning for the village when it comes to building houses?'
'It's every family for itself. How could the village plan?'
'So it's still the same, everyone demolishes their old house and builds a new one on top?'
'A few families are planning to build in the vegetable garden in front, but most are building on the foundations of the old houses.'
'I don't think that's a good idea. Before liberation, when the village built houses, everyone knew how to plan. Look at it now, the village is like a maze, and outsiders can't find their way out after a long time.'
When he was a child, most of the original old houses were still there. Feng Yiping remembers very clearly that their village was made up of three old houses in the shape of the Chinese character for 'product'. Those three old houses were actually planned and very user-friendly.
For example, the front and back of the houses were all on the same line, with neat passageways on both sides. These passageways were more than two metres wide, and many of them were covered with tiles and paved with green bricks. Although the lighting was not very good, on rainy days, you could go from one house to the next without opening your umbrella and without getting your shoes wet. In the summer, these alleys were the most comfortable places to be, with a cool breeze blowing through.
The sunken gutters and the open gutters were also well-planned and neat. The small stream of water that flowed from behind the village flowed along the wide open gutter and emptied into the pond in front of the village, washing away everyone's domestic waste every time it rained.
In the centre of the square, there were public facilities such as an indoor stage. Next to each house, there was a well and a threshing floor.
Later, as the population grew, people started to build haphazardly, cutting off many of the ditches. The alleys were also demolished and there was no planning for the roads. After the houses were built, in some places, two people had to walk sideways when facing each other.
Feng Zhiming said, 'You're right, Yiping is right. These houses in the village are really chaotic. If I'm not in a hurry, I usually don't bother walking through the middle of the village, I'd rather take a detour and walk around.'
'But this is also difficult. He wants to build on the original foundation, so how can you not let him build?' Fourth Uncle still feels that this is a difficult thing to do.
'If the planning is good, just like those residential areas in the city, it's better than if he builds on the original site. It's more convenient, so why wouldn't he agree? I think we should ask the company that built the road last time to survey the neighbourhood and come up with a scientific and reasonable plan.'
'Wait, I'll ask now.'
After Uncle Si relayed Feng Yiping's words, after a while, Feng Weidong said, 'I think this is a good idea. We are such a large neighbourhood, and the current layout is indeed a bit chaotic.'
The few households living in the middle of the village are also having a headache over this problem. It is really a headache to transport materials such as steel bars and cement in along those winding and narrow paths. As for precast concrete slabs, forget about it. Unless some people's houses on the road are demolished, it is impossible to move in. If the village can take the lead in doing such things, they would welcome it.
'Brother Xinhua, what kind of house do you want to build?' Feng Yiping asked with a smile.
'That's easy. It'll be similar to the houses on both sides of the road, a two-storey building.'
'That's good, but I'm afraid that the house you're talking about will be demolished and rebuilt again when your son gets married because he won't be satisfied with it.
I want to say the same thing. I'm not talking about other people, just my father. Including this house, he has built a total of two houses. If he builds another house next year, he will have built at least three houses in his life. For the first two houses, he spent all his savings and even went into debt.
This house was built when I was in the third grade of primary school, and it will be ten years old next year. Now it feels outdated, so we're going to tear it down and build a new two-storey house. It'll cost at least 50,000 yuan, which is no small sum.
But in another ten years, the building that is built next year may also become outdated. Do we have to demolish it again? If we build another building ten years later, it may cost another 100,000 yuan. In the end, all the money we have worked hard to earn and saved up will be spent on building houses, and not only that, we will also suffer a lot.
So I think that if we are going to build, we might as well spend a bit more and build a good one that will last at least two generations. In that way, we will actually save money and effort, and we will also be comfortable living there ourselves.
The house is a big deal for both country folk and city dwellers.
When city dwellers get rich, they trade in their small houses for bigger ones, and when they get even richer, they buy villas. The quality of their living improves with each passing day, and their assets increase with each step. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
It's the same in the countryside. Once they have a bit of money, they want to live better, so they knock down their old house and build a new one. The money and effort they spent was wasted.
As soon as Feng Yiping mentioned it, they all realised that they had made a loss!
'Those who have studied are different, they understand better than us.'
'So what does a good house look like?'
'That's easy. We can hire a professional design company to work out how the house should look from the outside, how the interior should be laid out, and how the ancillary features such as septic tanks, pigsties and chicken coops should be arranged. For a small fee, they can definitely help us design a very reasonable house that won't go out of style in a few decades.'
'That's not a bad idea. There are a lot of villas in the city that look really nice, and I want my house to be just like them,' Dongmin said with a smile.
'Uncle Si, it is still necessary to let the village take the lead in this matter and find those professionals to plan and design it. The cost of building a house is so high, so it is better to be cautious,' Feng Weidong said.
'Agree,' 'agree,' everyone chimed in.
Thus, according to Feng Yiping's vision, the new rural village plan for Fengjiazong took another step forward.