Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 77 Carpentry and Masonry
Once the plan was finalized, the carpenter went to the bricklayer to discuss the location and dimensions of the doors and windows.

There were three large rooms in total, with the two on the sides divided into two smaller rooms, one in front and one in back. Behind the main hall in the middle was a granary. The layout was exactly the same as Captain Yang's house, except that the kitchen and pigsty were placed in the backyard.

There are two large doors in the front, one small door in the back, four room doors, and four rooms, each with a window. There is also a ventilation window above the main door of the main hall.

Then there are all sorts of door frames, rafters, roof beams, and wooden pillars. Just building the house requires a lot of wood. Huang Laosi also ordered several sets of furniture. All of these things need to be made in just three or four days.

So after the communication was clear, the three carpenters began to get busy.

Just like the day Captain Yang's family slaughtered a pig, the village laborers naturally helped with the moving and lifting, while the carpenter was in charge of the technical work.

This was actually a characteristic of that era: master craftsmen wouldn't do the rough work, and they weren't willing to accept extra pay, as it would lower their status for nothing, and ordinary people were reluctant to let them go. All the trivial and miscellaneous tasks were handled by the assistants, who only did the most technically demanding parts.

Several years later, when the situation has changed, these jobs can be taken over by private individuals.

In order to take on more work and earn more money, the master chefs of that time became "omnipotent".

Pig butchers no longer need help tying up pigs; some can handle a pig all by themselves, with at most an apprentice or helper.

Carpenters no longer sit idly by. From selecting and felling timber in the forest to processing the wood, then hauling it to their homes to cut it piece by piece, crafting furniture according to the customer's requirements, and finally delivering it to the customer's door.

Even skilled cooks like Master Liu no longer needed the host's help with preparations. Instead, he would bring four or five cooks to handle everything himself, some even bringing their own bowls and plates. At that time, the term "cooking master" was changed to "one-stop shop," meaning that he took care of everything from start to finish, and the host didn't even have to wash the dishes.

Instead of the current situation where everything has to be prepared by the host, the venue belongs to them, and the helpers are also theirs, while you only need to bring your own set of tools.

The logs were carried to the edge of the threshing ground, and Huang Laosi found some wide benches and brought over two large square tables.

The carpenter laid out his tools: adze, saw, chisel, plane, drill, several rulers, ink line, axe, and hammer. After checking them all, he began to work.

First, they sawed off several sections of wood to make a "wooden horse," which was used as a support for carrying large pieces of wood. Then, they nailed a "banmu nail" onto the bench.

Then, a log, about the thickness of a large bowl and three meters long, was pulled onto a wooden horse and placed on it. The carpenter took out a tape measure to measure the dimensions, then used a ruler and pencil to draw several lines on the cut surface. He then used an ink cartridge to draw a line on the trunk and then picked up a large saw to start working.

Crunch, crunch, crunch...

Without power tools, it all depends on manual labor. If the stitching is even slightly crooked, a piece of wood might be ruined, so there is no room for carelessness.

As wood chips fall, the timber is split into long, square strips or pieces, which are then sawn into boards of varying sizes according to dimensions.

Some also need to be smoothed with a plane, and the wood strips are stuck on the shank nails of the bench. When the wood strips are planed, they don't move at all. When you touch them after the planing is done, there are basically no splinters.

Chen Fan squatted to the side, watching intently.

The carpenter turned to look at him and laughed, "Master Chen, you're interested in carpentry?"

Chen Fan looked up at him, his face full of surprise, and asked, "You know me?"

Ever since the carpenter arrived, he had been following them around, and he was sure no one had introduced himself to them.

How do they come to know themselves?
The carpenter laughed and said, "We are from Team 4. When you came to our team to teach how to kill turtles, I was there too, so of course I recognize you."

Chen Fan opened his eyes wide and laughed, "Really? What a coincidence?" The other person turned around and glanced at him, laughing loudly, "It's no coincidence at all. Our construction team is all from Lujiawan."

He paused for a moment, then explained while busy with his work, "It's just that you, Master Chen, arrived late and don't know yet. Back in 70, the Lujiawan Brigade established a sideline team, which was actually a construction team. Because you don't need capital to run a construction team, you can just bring your own tools and start working."

We made great contributions back then. Our team was the best in the entire Nanhu Commune. The master craftsmen all worked for the wealthy Lu family back then. No other team could compare to us. From the commune to the county town, we earned several thousand yuan for the brigade every year.

In 74, the commune decided to establish a construction company and immediately incorporated us into its workforce. We were quite comfortable, becoming formal workers and earning several dozen yuan a month. However, the brigade suffered a loss, losing a significant amount of income.

Later, based on our construction team, we absorbed several other brigades and a few bricklayers and carpenters from the commune, and two more teams were formed.

However, our first team still has the most work. Normally, we're running around to various work units and don't take on house-building jobs; those are the work of the second and third teams. It's only here in Lujiawan that we come to help out, since we're all from the same village.

His words were brimming with pride.

The other carpenters and bricklayers chuckled upon hearing this, and none of them refuted it.

Even the members of Team 6 looked proud of themselves.

Chen Fan naturally said all the nice things to people who clearly valued collective honor, and soon he became one of them.

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

How to select timber, how to cut it down, how to process it, how to design furniture, how to use a large saw to save effort...

After chatting here, they went to chat with the bricklayer, keeping themselves very busy.

Just now, Chen Fan suddenly activated two more skills: "Carpentry" and "Bricklaying".

This struck him as quite amazing. Yesterday at the brigade headquarters, he had been so eager to repair the broadcasting machine. Besides trying to win the favor of several leaders, he also had a small selfish motive: to see if he could activate his electrical repair skills.
The result was disappointing to him. Perhaps tightening a couple of screws didn't count as repairing an appliance, so he didn't get the recognition on the skills board, and in the end, there was no reaction at all.

On the contrary, after watching the excitement from the sidelines for a while today, I actually gained both "carpentry" and "bricklaying" skill bars.

At the beginning, both skills were pitifully at LV1, with only one or two experience points.

However, as he humbly learned from these experienced masters, he quickly leveled up to LV2.

So he's really looking forward to it. He wonders if he'll be able to level up to LV3 once the house is built.

If possible, it would be a skill to have. Even if you don't work for a construction team in the future, at least you won't have to go around looking for help when there are minor problems at home.

If possible, once I manage to get my electrical skills back, I'll be a construction team, which would be amazing!

Just as Chen Fan was having a sweet dream, someone finally called out from the side, "Master Chen, everything is ready, thank you for your help."

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

(End of this chapter)