Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

"Sister, this is it, welcome home!"

Cao Zhiqiang unlocked the verandah door leading to the west courtyard, pushed open the iron gate with a smile, and then took the initiative to invite his sister over.

After officially entering the West Crossing Courtyard, Cao Jiajia was dumbfounded when she looked at the brand new bluestone floors throughout the courtyard, as well as the flower beds set aside separately, as well as the wooden pavilion with tables, chairs and grape trellises.

"This is our home?" Cao Jiajia said in surprise, "It feels completely different!"

"Yes, this is our home!" Cao Zhiqiang walked in with a smile, "Sister, you look around first, I will put the things in the house, and we will talk later."

After saying that, Cao Zhiqiang, who was packed with bags, walked to the main room of the north house first, took out the key, unlocked the door, and then pushed the door open and entered.

As for Cao Jiajia, she walked around the newly decorated courtyard with her two children, who were also full of curiosity, looking everywhere.

Especially the two children are very happy.

Because in the small quadrangle of Xikuoyuan, there is not only a wooden pavilion, but also some fitness equipment such as horizontal bars and parallel bars, a particularly beautiful wrought iron swing, and an wrought iron seesaw.

Children don't know what to decorate or not to decorate, they just know what is fun.

Obviously, the iron swing immediately attracted their attention.

So after getting their mother's permission, Xia Wenfang and Xia Wenxuan immediately ran to the swings and seesaw and started having fun.

As for Cao Jiajia, she walked to the pavilion and sat on a chair, looking left and right, touching left and right.

She soon discovered that the floor, tables and chairs in the pavilion were all new and made of wood. They were not only comfortable to touch, but also comfortable to step on.

Look at the surrounding houses, such as the inverted house, the east and west wing rooms, etc. The surfaces have been repainted, and the doors and windows have to be replaced with new ones.

But the most eye-catching thing is the glass room, or glass veranda, built in front of all the houses.

Cao Jiajia was actually very curious about these glass houses, but it was a new arrival and she was too embarrassed to look around.

Soon, Cao Zhiqiang, who had put away his things, walked out of the main room of the north house, crossed the glass verandah, followed the non-slip bluestone pavement, came to the pavilion, and sat opposite Cao Jiajia.

"How about it, eldest sister, can you still recognize me?" Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile.

Cao Jiajia sighed: "If you didn't tell me, I wouldn't recognize it at all. This is where I used to live. It's changed too much."

Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile: "The original design was not suitable for living, so I hired someone to renovate the whole place, and that's how it turned out.

Although the appearance has changed and the style is no longer the same as before, don’t you think it looks better and more livable?”

Cao Jiajia nodded: "Indeed, you look foreign!"

Cao Zhiqiang stood up and said: "Come on, sister, let me show you around and introduce this new house to you?"

"Okay!" Cao Jiajia stood up with a smile, "That's what I was planning to do."

"Come on, let me introduce this pavilion to you first." Cao Zhiqiang walked to the side with a smile and knocked on the pavilion pillar with his hand.

"Sister, these are all made of wood. If you have nothing to do, you can drink tea here, play chess or something.

There is a wooden grape trellis on the south aisle of the pavilion, and there are flowerbeds for planting flowers and grass on both sides of the aisle.

Although there is nothing now and it looks bare and ugly, once grapes and flowers are planted, it will look great in a year or two."

Cao Jiajia then stood up, looked around, and nodded slightly: "Indeed, you have put your heart into it."

Cao Zhiqiang smiled: "That's nothing. The most proud place in this yard for me is actually the sunshine verandah."

"Sunshine Corridor?" Cao Jiajia was stunned, "What is it?"

Cao Zhiqiang casually pointed to the glass houses built in front of the houses: "They are those glass houses connected in series. These glass houses are connected in series to form a verandah. I specifically call it the Sunshine Veranda."

After that, Cao Zhiqiang began to take Cao Jiajia to the Sunshine Corridor and introduced the situation of the Sunshine Corridor in detail.

It turns out that the house in the west courtyard, whether it was the north main house, the east and west wings, or the south house, had no verandah in the past.

In other words, with the original house design, you opened the door from the house and entered the patio directly.

If it rains at this time, if you open the door, it will rain outside.

In the past, the corridor from the west courtyard to the middle courtyard had a wooden brick roof to protect it from rain.

In the past, residents of the West Cross Courtyard basically kept their bicycles and other things in the covered corridor leading from the West Cross Courtyard to the middle courtyard to protect them from the sun and rain.

Of course, because the covered corridor is ventilated from all sides, if there is a heavy rainstorm, it will definitely not work and it will rain.

The reason why the layout was like this in the past is that this courtyard house was originally the residence of a wealthy family in the former Qing Dynasty.

In the earlier layout, the west courtyard was just a simple small garden.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, this courtyard was renovated in order to increase the number of residences.

The main part of the courtyard, where He Yuzhu lived, could not be significantly renovated. The only option was to renovate the east-west courtyard and build more houses in the east-west courtyard.

The part that spans the east and west courtyards is just a temporary house that was built later, so naturally it doesn’t require so much attention.

The West Cross Courtyard is actually quite good, probably because the overall area is smaller, but it still maintains a basic courtyard structure.

Because of the large area of ​​Dongkuaoyuan, many houses were later built in order to accommodate more people. It is a real row upon row and a real large courtyard.

The current design is to add a glass house to all the houses here, including the main house in the north, the east and west wing rooms, and the reverse side house in the south.

These covered glass rooms are all connected in series to form a veritable glass veranda.

In this way, even if it is a rainy day, if all the rooms open their doors and walk back and forth between the rooms, they will not get caught in the rain because of these glass verandas.

It is limited by factors such as materials and technology, and of course construction time.

The main frame of the entire glass verandah is made of reinforced concrete, and a large number of large glass windows are added.

Because the frame parts are widely spaced and there are many glass parts, when viewed from a distance, the entire glass verandah looks as if it is made of large pieces of glass, which is very beautiful.

Most of the glass windows, including numerous top glass skylights, can be opened.

When it is not windy or rainy, or when it is not cold, all the glass windows can be opened to maximize ventilation.

Once it's windy and rainy, or it's winter, you can close the windows, which will also increase the thermal insulation effect.

Don't underestimate this, this is a very effective design in the north in winter.

The glass verandahs are all electrified, and wall lights are added at intervals.

There are also power sockets installed in many places.

In this way, it will be very convenient if there are electric vehicles that need to be charged or electrical appliances that need to be plugged in in the future.

In addition, there are reserved pipes at the top and bottom. If you install an air conditioning system, a fresh air system, or broadband and other messy things in the future, you can also expand it at will.

The only disadvantage is that the design of this glass verandah destroys the original courtyard style.

But for Cao Zhiqiang, he has always been practical.

Moreover, when it came to the renovation of this courtyard house, he had no intention of making money there, he just wanted to live by himself, so he made it as comfortable as possible.

"The glass veranda also has radiators." Cao Zhiqiang continued, "With these radiators, it will be very warm here when the doors and windows are closed in winter."

"Isn't it?" Cao Jiajia frowned, "It's enough to install a heater in the house. Wouldn't it be too wasteful to install a heater in this glass house? Besides, there are so many radiators that an ordinary stove can't even pull them up."

"Don't worry." Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile, "There is a part of the reverse room in the south house. I have someone specially built a boiler room. When the time comes, I only need to buy a high-power boiler and don't have to worry about not being able to pull it up.

Also, if you think it’s a waste, that’s okay.

In fact, the radiator in the sun porch is connected in parallel with the radiator inside the house.

If you don’t want these radiators in the sunlounger to provide heat, you can close the valve here, it’s very simple.”

"That's it." Cao Jiajia frowned, "How much coal would it take to build a separate boiler room?"

Cao Zhiqiang smiled and said: "Sister, the house has been renovated, why do you still care about that little money?

Don’t worry, the coal supply every year from now on will be taken care of by me, so you won’t have to spend any money.

Of course, this is just now.

When central heating is available here in the future, it would be better to connect the central heating pipes."

Cao Jiajia quickly said: "That's so embarrassing."

"What's there to be embarrassed about?" Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile, "Sister, our family doesn't speak the same language.

To be blunt, the consumption I just mentioned, to me now, is actually no different than spending a penny on it.

If you didn't have any money, would you care?"

Cao Jiajia laughed and said: "Oh, I forgot, you are now a rich man who is not short of money."

"Maybe I can barely count the money, but I can't say I'm not short of money." Cao Zhiqiang shook his head, "I am actually still short of money, but my lack of money is not here.

So I really don’t have to worry about things like this in life anymore.”

Cao Jiajia smiled: "Well, since you said so, it would be hypocritical for me to push back."

"It should have been like this a long time ago." Cao Zhiqiang smiled.

Speaking of this, Cao Zhiqiang said to Cao Jiajia: "Sister, the situation in the yard is like that. Let's take a look at it later. Let's go back to the living room first and see where you usually live. How about it?"

"Okay!" Cao Jiajia smiled and nodded.

Soon, Cao Zhiqiang took Cao Jiajia to his original home, which was the earlier east wing.

After entering here, we found that it had been transformed into a bedroom, study room and bathroom.

In other words, in this east wing, the south part is the bedroom, the middle room is the bathroom and dressing room, and the north room is the study.

In other words, the original suite 3 has been transformed into a layout with a bathroom in the middle and a bedroom and study room on both sides.

This pattern was specially requested by Cao Zhiqiang, but Cao Jiajia felt very strange after seeing it.

"Brother." Cao Jiajia asked Cao Zhiqiang strangely, "Why did you change it like this? In the middle hall, you actually changed it into a bathroom and a dressing room? What do you think?"

Cao Zhiqiang chuckled: "Of course it's for convenience."

Afterwards, Cao Zhiqiang explained to Cao Jiajia the benefits of doing so.

According to Cao Zhiqiang, doing this will make it easier to go to the toilet.

If you sleep here or need to go to the bathroom in the future, you don't have to run far, there is a room next to it.

And because it was renovated from the original main room and the area is large enough, the bathroom is also separated from wet and dry areas. There is a special place for going to the toilet and a special place for bathing, with frosted glass as a partition in the middle.

A flushable squat toilet is installed in the toilet area, and the sewage pipe below leads directly to a septic tank in the yard outside.

Not only does the toilet here lead to the septic tank, but the toilets in all other rooms also lead to the septic tank.

In this way, you only need to find sanitation personnel regularly to come and clean the septic tank.

It can be said that if you live here, you will no longer need to empty the toilet every morning.

As for the bathing area, it is called the washroom. There is a bathtub and a shower installed here.

The room here is also equipped with a liquefied gas water heater.

For safety reasons, the liquefied gas water heater is installed in the compartment outside the bathroom, and the gas tank is also installed there.

The partition between the cubicle and the washroom is made of thick concrete walls. If the cubicle explodes, the washroom will not be harmed.

Moreover, the cubicle is also equipped with an electric ventilation fan. Once you need to take a shower, the ventilation fan will be turned on to continuously force ventilation.

This can avoid gas poisoning.

There is no way, the current gas water heaters are all direct discharge, not forced discharge type, so for the sake of safety, Cao Zhiqiang specially used this compartment with an exhaust fan.

Outside the bathroom is a dressing room.

Inside are wooden cabinets, three large fitting mirrors, and a leather seat.

Here, you can change your clothes as much as you like.

The restrooms and changing rooms are all side by side, and the area is half as narrow as the original central hall.

In this case, you can reserve an aisle and walk directly from the bedroom in the east wing to any room along the corridor.

In short, placing the bathroom and changing room in the middle is for comfort, and practicality is king in everything.

Not only the east wing has this layout, but the main room of the north house also has a similar layout.

It's just that in the main room of the north house, there is no study room, replaced by a living room.

In other words, if you want to entertain guests, go to the living room of the main room in the north house.

If the owner of the main house wants to sleep, he can go to the master bedroom of the main house to sleep.

As for the east and west wing rooms, they can be used by children.

"Sister, this is just right now." Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile, "When my brother-in-law comes, you and your brother-in-law will live in the main room, and then you and your two children will live in the east wing together when they are young. When they grow up, each of you will live in a wing.

How wonderful."

"Ah?" Cao Jiajia was stunned, "You want us to live in the main house and the east and west wings?"

"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang nodded.

"Then what should you do?" Cao Jiajia asked, "We will live in the main house and the east and west wings. Where will you live?"

"Me?" Cao Zhiqiang was stunned, then smiled, "I don't live here, this place is reserved for you."

Cao Jiajia suddenly realized it and slapped her forehead: "Look at my brain, I forgot that you bought a house long ago and want to live with Qinghong."

Cao Zhiqiang smiled: "That's right."

"But this is too luxurious." Cao Jiajia looked around and sighed.

Cao Zhiqiang smiled and said: "Sister, if I have to choose, I definitely don't like this place, because it is too old. Even if it undergoes such a degree of renovation, it is actually not livable, at least it does not meet the standards of a good house in my mind."

.

But after all, this is the ancestral home, the place where we grew up, and I miss it somewhat, so I keep it to this day. I also bought all the neighbors’ houses and renovated them.

I just thought that if you come back in the future, you can at least have a home.

No matter what, this is your and my common home and our roots.

I can go out now, but as for you, it's better to come back here for the time being.

I believe you won’t feel uncomfortable living here anymore, right?”

Upon hearing this, Cao Jiajia's eyes immediately became moist: "Zhiqiang, it's hard for you to think so thoughtfully! You, you have really grown up!"

Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly: "Everyone has to grow up. I can't always be the little follower behind you."

"Hahaha!" Cao Jiajia wiped her tears with a handkerchief, "It's true, everyone has to grow up, sooner or later one day!"

Speaking of this, Cao Jiajia couldn't help but shed tears again: "Thank you, thank you so much, Qiangzi!"

"You're welcome." Cao Zhiqiang smiled again.

"Sister, as I said before, one family does not speak the same language.

You stay here first, take your time and get used to it. After two days, I will help you arrange work and improve relationships.

Once you have a formal job and your files are closed, you won’t have to worry about anything.”