Transmigrated as a Stepmother: Time to Bring the Family to Prosper!-Chapter 40 - 39: New House Completed

Chapter 40: Chapter 39: New House Completed
With the arrival of the last month of the lunar year, the house was finally done after a month and eight days of work.
The original two rooms had their walls freshly plastered, smooth and neat. The roof was reinforced, with the thatched top replaced by blue tiles.
Based on the original structure, two additional rooms were added on each the east and west sides.
On the west side were two slightly larger tiled rooms, each twenty square meters, one for Qin Yao’s bedroom, and the other for the Da Lang brothers and sisters’ new bedroom.
The furniture in Qin Yao’s bedroom was all newly made.
A 1.5-meter bed, a wardrobe 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters high, two square boxes, and a set of desk and chair.
Except for the bed and boxes, which had the simple style popular in the area, Qin Yao personally designed the remaining wardrobe and desk.
The wardrobe was square-shaped, needing no carvings, identical to modern minimalist furniture.
Inside, sections were divided for hanging and folding clothes, with four drawers included below, and space at the top for quilts.
The desk was a rectangular table measuring 1.2 by 60 centimeters, with two drawers, complemented by a simple wooden chair, completing the setup.
Copper mirrors were expensive, and Qin Yao couldn’t bear to buy one, so it was temporarily missing; other than that, everything needed for daily life was ready.
The remaining space would be slowly filled as new needs arise.
In the Da Lang brothers and sisters’ bedroom, there were two 1.35-meter bunk beds made by a carpenter as per Qin Yao’s request.
This way, all four siblings had their own independent sleeping places.
The siblings drew lots to decide the upper bunks; after a long time, Sanlang and Second Lang ended up with the upper bunks, while Da Lang and Si Niang took the lower bunks.
Between the two beds, there were newly made box cabinets for storage, with flat tops for some daily items.
Under each bed were two drawers, and combined with the cabinets, the siblings all had equal storage space.
Beneath the window stood a two-meter-long, 80 cm wide table, with four tall stools, one for each sibling.
Considering that Si Niang was a girl, and anticipating inconvenience as she grew older sharing a room with her brothers, Qin Yao pre-emptively prepared a threshold slot for a removable board in the siblings’ room.
When Si Niang grew older, inserting the board would create an independent small space, enough for a single bed, a dressing table, and a small wardrobe.
A door was also prepared in advance, currently locked; when opened, it would lead to another door, a completely separate space.
In arranging the Da Lang siblings’ room, Qin Yao was careful to balance everything fairly.
Because the carpenter found the bunk bed design exquisite, he gave Qin Yao a significant discount on all the furniture.
The two extra rooms on the east side were much smaller, with thatched roofs, one measuring fifteen square meters, the other only six square meters.
The larger room served as a combined kitchen and storage room, divided into two rooms, adjacent to the original detached room.
The old stove was removed, and a new one was made by the mason, with two stove holes, allowing for cooking and frying simultaneously.
Qin Yao specifically asked Liu Ji if he had any objections, and he shook his head, saying it was fine, so there were no further changes.
A new water tank was purchased, making a total of two tanks in the kitchen; one full load of water could last the entire family three days, a great convenience compared to fetching water several times a day before.
Of course, if the natural spring on the back mountain could be introduced, even better.
But due to the extensive work required, it was postponed for now.
The six-square-meter small room became the bathing room.
Uncle Jiu used all the broken tiles from transport and laid them on the floor, hammering them flat with a wooden mallet, ensuring the ground wouldn’t turn to mud when wet.
This place was dedicated for bathing, and chamber pots could be placed here at night for convenient bathroom trips.
Every household in the village had latrines, but due to superstitions like feng shui, they were built far away, generally thirty meters behind the house.
Some were even fifty meters away.
Qin Yao could only conform to the local customs, building the latrine at the foot of the mountain, more than twenty meters from home.
To use the toilet, one had to pass through a back door in the newly built wall, cross a wasteland before reaching the latrine.
Thankfully, she had a shower room; in laziness, she could manage at home, emptying at the latrine in daylight.
Liu Ji moved from the main house to the side room, which became his room, furnished with old furniture from before.
The unusable pieces were split by Qin Yao for burning.
Although Liu Ji envied the new house and new furniture, he didn’t dare to say much, only whispering complaints of unfairness while cooking.
He was the one doing laundry, cooking and cleaning, yet treated worse than the four kids who ran around all day.
The former main house turned into a guest hall and dining room, simply furnished with some tables and chairs, without other decorations.
In the new household, all furniture was natural wood color, the blue mud floor hammered tightly with mallets, bright and flat, giving the whole place a warm and bright atmosphere.
A newly built two-meter-high wall surrounded the courtyard, dividing it into front and back yards.
The front yard was very spacious, encompassing much of the previous open ground; Old Liu specifically used picked stones to enclose two vegetable plots. Mrs. Zhang even sent a packet of seeds, urging Liu Ji to grow some vegetables himself, as buying them daily was impractical.
In front of the kitchen, Qin Yao set up a large sink for easy washing of clothes and vegetables.
The sink was a stone trough, discarded by the uncle’s family.
Qin Yao carried the heavy stone trough back by herself, cleaned it, and pickaxed the sides flat, creating a ready-made single large trough, measuring a full 1.2 meters long.
Uncle Jiu helped to find four short wooden supports, raising it eighty centimeters off the ground for a perfect wash basin.
It would surely be satisfying to use for washing dishes and clothes.
Qin Yao drilled a drainage hole in the middle of the trough, usually plugged with a wooden stopper to hold water.
To avoid wetting the courtyard ground, a bamboo conduit was made, directing water directly to the eaves’ drainage ditch, flowing to the barren slope outside the house.
After completing the sink, clan members who came to help said it was very practical and planned to make one for their own women, saving the hassle of moving large basins of water for emptying, which was tiring.
To complement the sink, Qin Yao moved one of the kitchen’s water tanks over, making water use more convenient.
If it rained, the water collected in the sink could be used for watering vegetables.
The backyard was slightly smaller, currently vacant, with Qin Yao planning to install some wooden stakes later, creating a practice martial arts area.
After the new home was completed, Qin Yao finally felt a bit of the convenience of life.
Choosing an auspicious day, she invited two sisters-in-law over to prepare a meal, inviting the villagers to a housewarming.
Seeing the never-before-seen sink, shower room, and simple, beautiful natural wood furniture, everyone was envious.