Reborn in 1977

Chapter 77: Carpentry and Bricklaying

Once the plan was finalized, the carpenter went to discuss the placement and dimensions of the doors and windows with the bricklayer.

There were a total of three large rooms. The two side rooms were divided into front and back smaller rooms. The middle room, the main hall, had a granary behind it, identical in size to the one at Captain Yang's house, except that the kitchen and pigsty were placed in the backyard.

There were two large doors in the front, a small door in the back, plus four room doors, and each of the four rooms had a window. There was also a transom window above the main door of the hall.

Then there were various door frames, rafters, roof beams, and wooden pillars. The lumber needed just to build the house was considerable. Huang Laosi also ordered several sets of furniture. All of these things had to be crafted in just three or four days.

Therefore, after clarifying everything, the three carpenters began to work busily.

Just like the pig slaughter at Captain Yang's house the other day, there were villagers helping with the lifting and carrying, while the carpenters were solely responsible for the technical work.

This was actually a characteristic of this era. Master craftsmen didn't do rough work, not even for extra money, as it would be beneath their dignity, and the common people couldn't afford it. The menial tasks were all handled by helpers, and they only did the most technically demanding part.

Several years later, when the situation changed, all of these jobs could be contracted out privately.

In order to take on more work and earn more money, the master craftsmen of that time transformed into "all-rounders."

The pig slaughterers no longer needed help with tying up the pigs. Some could handle a pig single-handedly, with at most a disciple or helper.

The carpenters no longer sat back and waited. From selecting and felling trees in the forest to processing the wood, and then hauling it to their homes for cutting, they crafted furniture according to the customer's requirements and delivered it to their door.

Even a cook like Master Liu would no longer ask the host to help with preparations, but would instead bring four or five cooks to handle everything. Some even brought their own bowls and plates. At that time, "cook masters" were renamed "one-stop service," meaning they took care of everything from start to finish, even doing the dishes.

It wasn't like now, where everything had to be prepared by the host, the venue belonged to the host, the helpers belonged to the host, and they only brought a set of tools.

Here, the wood was carried to the edge of the open ground. Huang Laosi found a few wide benches and brought over two large square tables.

The carpenter laid out his tools—adze, saw, chisel, plane, drill, several kinds of rulers, ink marker, axe, hammer—checked that everything was there, and then began to work.

First, he sawed a few sections of wood and made a "sawhorse," which was a support for handling large pieces of wood. He also nailed a "bench dog" to the bench.

Then, he dragged a piece of wood as thick as a large bowl and three meters long onto the sawhorse. The carpenter pulled out a tape measure to measure the dimensions, then used a ruler and pencil to draw several lines on the cut surface, and used the ink marker to snap a black line onto the trunk. Then, he picked up the large saw and began to work.

Screech, screech, screech…

Without power tools, everything relied on pure manual labor. If the line was even slightly crooked, a piece of wood could be ruined, so there was no room for carelessness.

Little by little, wood chips fell, and the wood was divided into square long strips or long pieces, then sawn into blocks of various sizes according to the dimensions.

Some also needed to be planed smooth. The wood strip was clamped onto the bench dog on the bench. When planing, the wood strip didn't move at all. After planing, when you reached out to touch it, there were basically no splinters.

Chen Fan squatted to one side, watching intently.

The carpenter turned his head to look at him, and laughed, "Is Master Chen also interested in carpentry?"

Chen Fan raised his head to look at him, and asked with a surprised face, "You know me?"

Since the carpenters had arrived, he had been following them around, and he was sure that no one had introduced himself to them.

How did they know him?

The carpenter laughed, "We are from Team 4. You went to our team to teach how to kill soft-shelled turtles. I was there at the time, of course I recognize you."

Chen Fan widened his eyes and smiled, "Really? What a coincidence?"

Another person turned to look at him, and said loudly with a smile, "This is no coincidence. Our construction team is all from Lujiawan."

After a pause, he explained while busy with his work, "It's just that Master Chen, you came late and don't know. In 1970, the Lujiawan brigade established a sideline team, which was actually a construction team, because running a construction team didn't require capital. They could go into battle with their own tools.

At that time, we made great contributions. Our craftsmanship was the best in the entire Nanhug Commune. The old masters had all worked in the Lu landlord's house back in the day. Other teams couldn't compare to us. From the commune to the county seat, we earned several thousand yuan for the brigade in a year.

As a result, in 1974, the commune wanted to establish a construction company, and they incorporated us all at once. We were comfortable, becoming formal workers, earning dozens of yuan a month in wages, but the brigade suffered a loss, losing a large amount of income.

Later, based on our construction team, they absorbed several other brigades, as well as several bricklayers and carpenters from the commune, and established two more teams.

But our Team 1 still has the most work. Under normal circumstances, we run around to various units, and don't take on the job of building houses for ordinary people. That's the business of Teams 2 and 3. It's only because this is Lujiawan, and we're helping our fellow villagers."

His words were full of pride.

The other carpenters and bricklayers all laughed heartily, and no one refuted him.

Even the members of Team 6 looked proud.

For someone who valued collective honor so much, Chen Fan naturally only said good things, and soon became friends with them.

After that, Chen Fan deliberately steered the conversation towards craftsmanship.

How to select wood, how to cut it down, how to process it, how to design furniture, how to save effort when pulling a large saw…

After chatting here, he went to chat with the bricklayers, busy and happy.

Because just now, Chen Fan had suddenly activated two more skills, "Carpentry" and "Bricklaying."

This made him feel very magical. Yesterday at the brigade headquarters, he had actively repaired the radio, not only to win the favor of several leaders, but also with a little bit of selfish intention, which was to see if he could activate the electrical repair skill.

The result disappointed him. Perhaps tightening a few screws didn't count as repairing electrical appliances, and he didn't get the skill board's approval. In the end, there was no reaction at all.

But today, after watching the fun for a while, he actually increased the "Carpentry" and "Bricklaying" skill bars at the same time.

In the beginning, these two skills were still pitiful LV1, and the experience points were only one or two.

But as he humbly asked these experienced masters for advice, he quickly reached LV2.

So he was now particularly looking forward to whether he could reach LV3 after this house was built?

If he could, then he would have a skill to rely on. Not to mention going outside to run a "construction team" in the future, at least when there were small problems at home, he wouldn't have to go around looking for people.

If possible, when he found a way to brush back the electrician skill, then he would be a construction team himself, which would be amazing!

Just as Chen Fan was dreaming, someone finally came to call out, "Master Chen, everything is ready, please trouble you."

Chen Fan quickly stood up, "Coming, coming."