Chapter 328: Misjudgment in the New House Layout
Chapter 328: Misjudgment in the New House Layout
Wen Wan returned home with a sullen face and went straight to the closet to retrieve the metal box where she kept her money. She began counting the cash.
Zhou Guohua had just returned from the sea and was about to find some clothes to take a shower when he noticed Wen Wan taking out the money box. Curious, he asked, "What's going on? Do you need to buy something?"
Wen Wan finished counting all the money, including her own, and found that they only had 744.40 yuan in total.
"Why is there so little money?" Zhou Guohua asked.
"Recently, we've been spending a lot on building the house and making the fish cages," Zhou Guohua explained.
There was still a large amount of cement and sand to be paid for, and the workers' wages for the previous month hadn't been settled yet! "What's the matter? Is there something you want to buy?"
Wen Wan said, "I want to buy land."
Zhou Guohua was puzzled, "Why do you want to buy land?"
Now that the family had split up, they had received their share of the land, and they had already built a house. They didn't need more land, so why buy it?
Wen Wan explained, "I want to buy the land behind our new house. Go and ask your sister how much an acre of that land costs."
Zhou Guohua was still confused, "That piece of land is overgrown with weeds and flooded every year. It's not even suitable for building a house. Why buy it?"
"That land will be valuable in the future. I dreamed that Zhou Chenglei bought it and made a fortune. Hurry up and ask your sister about the price, and let's buy the land first! Will you go?"
Zhou Guohua couldn't refuse her, so he agreed, "Okay, I'll go and ask. But we still need to pay for the cement and sand, and the workers' wages from last month, which adds up to over 300 yuan."
Wen Wan grew a little impatient, "Just go and ask how much it costs per acre! If we don't have enough money, we can borrow. We must buy the land as soon as possible."
Zhou Guohua was worried that she might get too excited, which wouldn't be good for the baby, so he quickly agreed, "Alright, I'll go and ask. Just don't get too worked up."
"Then go quickly. I want to buy the land so that our son can have a better future. If we don't have enough money, we can borrow from your father."
"Okay, I'll go and ask first."
"Come, let's go and see the layout of the house." After the greenhouse of the new house was completely dismantled and cleaned, and the villagers had left, Zhou Chenglei finally returned to the room and called Jiang Xia to view the house layout.
Jiang Xia closed her pen and walked with him.
The first floor of the new house had a design of three bedrooms and two living rooms, with the living rooms in the center.
Upon entering, there was a living room, followed by a dining room, one in front of the other.
There were two rooms on either side of the living room.
To the left of the dining room was the master bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, and to the right was a staircase and a shared bathroom.
Initially, the first floor was only meant to have two bedrooms, but since there were no area restrictions for rural house construction at that time, and the indoor area was already 130 square meters, they decided to add a third bedroom. There was no need to allocate space for a kitchen, so the first floor had three rooms.
To make furniture placement more convenient, corridors were left on both sides to access the rooms, so the room doors were not visible from the living rooms.
The dining room had a large window, and the ends of the corridors on both sides also had windows.
Each room was spacious, and the windows were large, allowing ample natural light into the entire house.
Zhou Chenglei led Jiang Xia upstairs to the second floor.
The second floor had a small living room for daily use and four bedrooms.
There was an extra-large L-shaped balcony accessible from the living room, and the sea could be seen from the balcony.
The master bedroom was an en-suite with a southeast-facing window, offering a view of the sea.
One other room also had a sea view, but the others did not.
The first-floor rooms also had a sea view, but it was partially obstructed by trees, not providing as expansive a view.
However, once the courtyard wall was built, the view from the first floor would be blocked, and it hadn't been constructed yet.
Jiang Xia looked out from the master bedroom window. The early winter sky was clear and blue, and the distant sea merged with the horizon, vast and open, creating a sense of tranquility and serenity.
Jiang Xia exclaimed with delight, "The morning scenery must be beautiful."
"Yes, you can see the sunrise over the sea."
Zhou Chenglei stood by her side, admiring the same view, "The neighboring room also has a sea view, we can use it as a study."
Jiang Xia: "Let's ask Zhou Zhou which room he prefers first."
Zhou Chenglei didn't want anyone to stay in the neighboring room; he wanted it as a study.
It wasn't that he was reluctant to let the children stay there; he was worried that the noise he and Jiang Xia made might disturb the children.
So he intentionally designed the space below the master bedroom as a stairwell, not a room.
But Jiang Xia had a different idea; she wanted the room with the best view for the children.
Zhou Chenglei: "What about the third floor? The children can stay there."
He planned to let the children stay on the third floor or the first floor once they were born.
Jiang Xia: "Climbing so many stairs is tiring and troublesome!"
Zhou Chenglei couldn't help but grumble in his heart: How tiring could it be for the children to climb two floors? Doesn't she think about how hard it is for me to endure being heard by others?
If I had known, I would have kept only one room on the second floor.
I miscalculated!
"Let's go check out the third floor." Jiang Xia headed towards the stairwell.
Before they had even visited the doctor to check her condition, Zhou Chenglei was worried about her climbing too many stairs, so he picked her up and carried her upstairs.
Jiang Xia was startled and quickly hugged his neck.
"What are you doing? I can walk by myself."
"But you just said climbing stairs is tiring?"
Jiang Xia: "..."
Seeing that she was speechless, Zhou Chenglei's eyes and brows were filled with laughter.
When they reached the third floor, he finally put her down.
The layout of the third floor was the same as the second floor.
But the view from the third floor was even better!
From a higher vantage point, they could see further.
Jiang Xia, holding Zhou Chenglei's hand, took a tour: "The master bedroom on the third floor has an even better view of the sea, completely unobstructed by trees."
Zhou Chenglei: "Then should we stay on the third floor?"
The third floor was quieter.
Jiang Xia shook her head: "No, I'm too lazy to climb!"
No matter how beautiful the view was, they wouldn't appreciate it every day.
"When you don't want to climb the stairs, I can carry you up."
Jiang Xia was too lazy to respond and headed towards the stairwell: "Let's go check out the rooftop."
Zhou Chenglei picked her up again and headed towards the stairwell: "Don't climb too much for now, let's go see Dr. Gao tomorrow to check if your condition has stabilized."
Jiang Xia pointed at the wall above the stair platform.
"Is that the water reservoir?"
"Yes."
The space between the third floor and the rooftop had an exceptionally high ceiling.
The water reservoir was built here, with the same length and width as the stair platform, and a depth of one and a half meters.
Considering the load-bearing issues and water quality, the water reservoir wasn't built too large.
When filled, it could provide enough water for about a day. Anyway, once it's used up, they could use the water pump to refill it, which was very convenient.
On the rooftop, there was a semi-open rain and sun protection platform next to the stairwell, and a room on the side used as a granary.
In this one-and-a-half story house, this room and the semi-open rain protection platform were considered as the half floor, and the floorboards were also laid here.
However, there were no stairs, and the washing basin could be accessed using a ladder.
"This rain protection platform is very convenient. We often need to dry fish, and on rainy days, we have an additional space to do so."
"Hmm." The wind was strong on the rooftop, so Zhou Chenglei took off his jacket and draped it over Jiang Xia, helping her button it up.
"No need to button it." Jiang Xia gathered his jacket closer with her hands and walked towards the edge of the wall.
From the rooftop, the view was even more expansive.
On one side, they could see the sea, and on the other, they could see the town's houses.
But this was only for now; in the future, if the land in front was expropriated, this house might be blocked by tall buildings, or even possibly expropriated itself.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xia turned to Zhou Chenglei: "Is the land in the village expensive?"
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
