Siheyuan: Xu Damao's New Life

Xu Damao strolled to the address given by Director Wang, smoked a cigarette and asked around. Sure enough, Master Li was easy to find. Basically, everyone who built or renovated houses in Nanluoguxiang hired him, and his craftsmanship was quite good.

The man pointed to a house in the middle courtyard and said, "That's Master Li's house. He has no work these days, so he should be at home."

Xu Damao thanked him and went straight to Master Li's house. He knocked on the door and a strong man in his forties opened the door.

"Who are you looking for?" the man asked.

"You are Master Li, right? Director Wang introduced me here. He said that most of the renovations in this area mostly come to you. I also want to ask you to decorate my house." Xu Damao said.

"Oh, Director Wang recommended it. We are affiliated with the Street Office. When do you want to start the renovation? Have you got the approval from the Street Office?"

Xu Damao: "Master Li, I'm planning to renovate the house before getting married. If you're free now, let's go look at the house. I live in No. 95 Siheyuan, not far from here. I just got the approval document from the street office and came here directly."

"Okay, I don't have any work right now, so I'll go with you. Do you still need furniture made? If so, just call Lao Zhao. He has inherited the carpentry skills from his ancestors. It will be easier for us to negotiate the price if we go together." said Master Li.

"Okay, then let's go find Master Zhao together. Where does he live?"

"He's also in this alley. Let's go. Just call him on the way."

After the two of them left the compound and called Master Zhao, they walked towards Xu Damao's house. As soon as they entered the compound, they ran into the door god, Uncle San.

When Yan Bugui saw Xu Damao bringing two people into the compound, he asked, "Damo, what are you doing here with these two people?"

"Uncle, they are Master Li and Master Zhao from Maoer Hutong, they are decorators. I want to clean up the house, so I brought the two masters over to take a look." Xu Damao replied.

"Oh, why did you think of renovating the house? Then Third Uncle, you have to go with us to see if there is anything I can help with." Yan Bugui's eyes rolled around. There were a lot of old furniture and old wood used in the renovation, so he had to think of a way to get some bargains from them.

The four of them walked through the front yard to the water tank in the middle yard. Xu Damao pointed at the water tank and said, "Masters, I want to connect a water pipe from here directly to my home. This way, it will be more convenient to use water, and there won't be a large group of people scrambling for water when they go to work in the morning."

"This is easy. We just need to dig a trench on the ground to connect it. The trench needs to be dug deep to prevent freezing. The water pipes have to be better. Otherwise, if they are buried underground for a long time and are damaged, it will be too troublesome to dig up the ground to repair them. I will take a closer look at which route the pipes will be more convenient." said Master Li.

"Okay, thank you for taking care of the decoration. Let's go to the backyard of my house and take a look." Xu Damao said.

The four of them walked through the central courtyard and arrived at the door of Xu Damao's house.

"Look, masters, these two rooms are my home. There is also a small storage room over there that I built myself. Please take a closer look and see how to decorate it. We can discuss the specific decoration method after you have looked at it." Xu Damao said, pointing to his own house.

The two masters first walked around the house twice, looked at the outer walls and doors and windows, and then went into the inner room to check around.

"Have you two masters seen enough?"

"Well, we already have an idea of ​​the general situation of the house. Now it depends on how the owner wants to decorate it." Master Zhao said.

"My house used to have two rooms. My parents, sister and I lived here together, so we divided it into three small rooms. I want to make it into three rooms. The larger one will be the master bedroom, and the smaller one will be for the children. I also want to have an indoor bathroom where you can take a shower. Otherwise, it will be inconvenient to take a shower and go to the toilet in winter."

The two masters looked at each other and thought that the boss seemed to be well-off and had high requirements. "Okay, we'll do as you say. We've been in this business for many years and have acquaintances who can guarantee the quality of materials. But for the indoor bathroom, you have to find a way to get the toilet and water tank yourself. Does the boss have any other requirements?" Master Li asked.

"For the kitchen, I plan to use gas in the summer and the stove in the winter. I will build a brick bed in the master bedroom to keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer. I plan to build a stove next to the stove and install an earthen heater. For the ground, I can use hardened cement or flooring," said Xu Damao.

Master Zhao said: "There is no problem with the main structure of this house. It should have been a wealthy family's house at that time. The beams and other things are made of good wood. It can be used for at least ten years. The wall is peeling off quite seriously and needs to be repainted. The doors and windows are a bit old and do they need to be replaced? Does the furniture owner want to buy the finished products or have us make them?"

"Let's replace all the doors and windows with new ones. If you can get good wood, we can make furniture now. If not, I'll go to the trust store and buy some second-hand ones." Xu Damao replied.

"Okay, I'll go to the lumber mill to see if there's any good wood, and I'll write you back in a few days. Do you want to contract the labor and materials or buy the materials myself?"

Xu Damao said, "Hey, I don't have any connections in this area, so let's do it all for the materials and labor. I trust the people introduced by Director Wang, and you can give me a real price. If there is anything that is difficult to buy, please tell me and I will find a way."

"Boss, we can basically meet your requirements. We can discuss if there is anything we can't do. If it's according to what you said, the space of these two rooms is a bit small. What I mean is, there is some vacant land on the south side of your house. Can you go to the street office to approve that piece of land? In this way, you don't have to build a storage room outside, and the indoor space will be more spacious." Master Li put forward his own opinion.

Xu Damao stroked his chin and carefully examined the vacant lot to the south of his house. The vacant lot was about five or six meters away from the wall of the central courtyard. It was a small flower bed made of bricks. Xu Damao had no intention of taking care of it. He used to just throw a few sunflower seeds into it and harvest some seeds to eat. The land was useless, so he could really try to see if it could be approved.

"Okay, leave it to me. I'll go to the street office and ask Director Wang when I have time tomorrow. Buy the materials for the house based on what we have now. If the land is approved, we can buy more materials. Also, the tiles on the roof are quite old and leak a bit, so we need to check and replace them when the time comes."

The two masters walked a few steps away to discuss the price. Xu Damao took out a cigarette and gave it to the third uncle, and the two started chatting.

"Okay, Damao, the cadres' cigarettes are from Daqianmen, and today I'm smoking such good cigarettes thanks to you. Is there anything I can do that I can use your uncle's help with?" Yan Bugui said while blowing out a smoke ring.

Originally, Xu Damao had intended to win over the second and third uncles in order to deal with the retirement group led by the first uncle Yi Zhonghai in the Central Courtyard and the deaf old lady in the backyard. He asked the third uncle to come over so that he could take advantage of him and get closer to him.

"Okay, Uncle San, I really have a lot to trouble you with, but I have to discuss this with the two masters first."

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay. I'm not in a hurry. It's just that my neighbor wants to help. Business is more important." When the third uncle heard that someone really wanted to help him with something, he smiled happily. As long as he can be used for something, it's only right for me to take advantage of him a little, right?