Chapter 23: Cleaning start and Making plans
Just when Xiao Mo returns after sending Shitou out, they are all sitting at the dinner table. A meeting and briefing need to be done today since they have work to do and people will be coming to repair the roof, they don't want anyone getting injured or anything.
"Alright, you all knows that today we have a lot of things to do. Firstly, we will deep clean the Main House first. We will clean the floor and the wall of all the rooms and living room. You small one will only clean the floor, for the wall and, your jiejie and I will do it. After this, we will move all the things into the East house first, then we will start cleaning. No one is allowed to slack off today, in the evening, you will be given free time. If we finish cleaning all place today, tomorrow morning we don't have to clean anymore. It is better to finish the job early, but we must do it wholeheartedly, this is our house so we must transform it to be better. Understand?" Bai Yi Chen said.
He already discussed with Bai Yi Yang about their plans today, today is a cleaning day. Everyone answer with a yes and he moved on.
"Second, there will be people coming today to repair the roof, there is possibility that roof tiles may fall accidentally, so it is better to minimise walking around in the courtyard. Understand?" Bai Yi Chen said again.
"Yes!" They answer uniformly.
"Now is 7.40 am, we will move the things from the main house first. There are not much things so it won't take long." Bai Yi Chen said.
"Gege, you are not going to work today?" Bai Yi Ling asked.
"Not going for the rest of the holiday." Bai Yi Chen said. The children cheers and immediately cling onto Bai Yi Chen. Their happiness is similar to when parents said that they are not going to work.
Bai Yi Yang only smile and didn't say anything.
After that, they all move the things in the main house to the East house. There wasn't much to be honest, the big old mattress that the three girls used, one desk and one chair in the bedroom, one table and two chairs in the living room and that's all. The other two at the left and right side of the bedroom they using is empty, with only dusts and spider webs. This room is obviously never been lived by people before, what a waste of space.
The small things are put into the only two doors cupboard they have and the cupboard wasn't moved out of the room, it is enough to move it away from the wall to clean it up later.
Their house foundation is actually bricks and concrete, the outside of the court house is lined with what she think is cherry wood, with reddish brown colour, for the visual purpose only. But the inside of the house is all concrete, only the door and windows are woods.
All the rooms has large windows and the living room also has a large window on west side, it is the type with double door that open outwards. The windows are entirely made of woods so it is very dark when they closed it.
She is not a fan of this entirely made of wood windows, she prefer the glass kind outlined with wood so light can go in. She wonder if she can asked for a custom made windows? Later she will ask Uncle Zhou again to see if there are shop that made these in town.
The room door is also the most basic wooden doors, there are not even locks. And don't mention about the main entrance to the Main House, it is wide open.
But doors is not a problem, she can make it herself since they will be entirely made from woods.
This is one of the things that she planned to make first in her list.
When they started cleaning, Bai yi Yang opened the widows widely so there are air circulation and the twins first took the brooms to sweep the ceilings, the height wasn't bad with about 4 m height, they can install ceiling fans in every room in the future.
Bai Yi Yang stood on a chair to clean the lower part and Bi Yi Chen clean the higher area.
When they are satisfied with their work, they asked the children to sweep the soot and dust on the floor then move on to the next room.
The hardest to clean was the two unused rooms then the big living room is also hard to clean. They are big and Bai Yi Yang wanted them to clean it properly too, not that she doesn't want to see a speck of dust or anything, just so that the place is comfortable to sat on directly, that kind of cleanliness.
Seems like in the future when Bai Yi Yang makes more money, she need to hire cleaning company to deep clean this house at least once a week, this is too much job to do.
When they are in the middle of cleaning the living room wall and ceiling, Uncle Zhou truck and a lorry arrived in front of their house, it is now about 15 minutes passed 8.
Bai Yi Yang and Bai Yi Chen cane out, asking the children to continue sweeping the floor.
"Uncle Zhou, good morning." Bai Yi Chen greet Uncle Zhou who is standing with two men other than the three workers. Uncle Zhou is asking the lorry driver to reverse the car so that it directly in front of the gate before bringing in the two men into the courtyard. Their courtyard house main gate has three steps so they can't use the trolley.
"We were a bit late since the lorry need to move slowly." Uncle Zhou explain to the siblings.
"Let me introduce you to my friends, this is Mr.Lu and Mr. Duan, you can call them Uncle Lu and Uncle Duan. They are the plumbing and wiring expert that I told you about. And this is my relatives from my mother side, Yi Yang and Yi Chen." Uncle Zhou said, introducing to both side..
"Nice to meet you." They nod at each other. The two grown men seems to know about the family condition so they didn't ask to meet their parents.
"This two is very capable even if they are young so you can talk about it with them, I will watch over the workers." Uncle Zhou said to his friends.
"Of course." They smiled politely. They have heard a bit about this family from their friends, they were sceptical at first, such young children wanted to make a deal with them. What if they was scared off by the cost of things, it is not only a few yuans to repair this kind of things.
"This two uncles, my sister knows about this things. Please feel free to look around with her." Bai Yi Chen also followed Uncle Zhou, he is in charge of the roof tiles repair.
"Then please follow me." Bai Yi Yang said to the two people.
"Yatou, before that can you show us the water meter and electric meter first so that we can make a plan." Uncle Duan the plumber said.
"Of course, our water meter is outside behind this West house and electric meter is outside at the side of the main gate." Bai Yi Yang said as she bring them outside. They carefully passed through the workers carrying the roof tiles into the courtyard. Bai Yi Yang then bring them around, briefly show them where the electric connections are and the pipeline.
When they went back inside, the two uncles are more comfortable talking with Bai Yi Yang, they know that this girl is not playing around and serious about getting their service.
Bai Yi Yang first bring them to the kitchen, she let Uncle Lu sat in the kitchen first as she explain to Uncle Duan about the position of the sink that she wants, and she bring him to the laundry room to make another line to connect the washing machine then to the simple shower room with only one pipe head . She told him about the layout that she want, the sink and shower head position. Then to the toilet outside. Lastly the toilet/shower room in the main house which Bai Yi Yang was a bit embarrassed to show because there are some unknown stain here and there. They actually never used this bathrooms since they moved in, it was actually okay, no weird smell whatsoever, just it looks dirty and dusty.
"Sorry about that Uncle Duan, we actually never used that bathroom." Bai Yi Yang said apologetically as they return to the kitchen.
"No problem at all." Uncle Duan doesn't want to embarrass the girl. Uncle Duan has taken all details of each floor just like what Bai Yi Yang wanted so he can start planning now.
While Uncle Duan was planning and finding suitable products and type of sinks and so on, Bai Yi Yang brings Uncle Lu to look around too. The tour with Uncle Lu takes longer since almost all area need to be covered.
The lightings, the connection for ceiling fans, new power outlets and so on. Bai Yi Yang also asked a lot of question such as what if they wanted to install air conditioning or heater in the shower and such things in the future which Uncle Lu kindly answer.
Uncle Duan kindly explain about the things she ned to prepare again when she wants to do that etc.
They returned to the dining table and Uncle Duan has finished his draft, a catalogue in front of him too. Bai Yi Yang sat next to him and listen to him explaining things. She knows the brand they are using is good so she didn't need to look for these things outside herself, the design look quite modern, not less appealing than the products sold outside.
She choose 1 double bowl stainless steel sink that cost 293 yuan, 3 single wash basin for the toilet that cost 172 yuan each, 2 simple hand shower that cost 68 yuan, 2 ceramic toilet bowl with dual flush each at 345 yuan, Bai Yi Yang choose a beautiful design of black and white. The rest are picked by Uncle Duan, and also the cost of pvc pipe, hose, metal pipe etc. The materials cost alone is 2375 yuan combined.
Bai Yi Yang choose quite a few with good quality so it was a bit expensive, the piping line materials, Uncle Duan also gave a choice and she choose the more expensive side so it will last long and they don't need to repair it frequently.
"As for the labour fee, our company usually charge 60 yuan per hour, for plumbing there will be two worker but since this is your first time working with us, we will count as 100 yuan per hour for 2 workers. I estimated, 6-8 hours should be sufficient. How about that?" Uncle Duan said.
"Then, I will thank Uncle Duan in advance." Bai Yi Yang said with big smile. The labour fee is quite cheap but Bai Yi Yang knows that they are not losing money, the materials are brought from their shop so they also got profit from selling these materials.
"If possible I want the kitchen sink to be build in the counter top. Uncle Duan do you do this kind of service too?" Bai Yi Yang said.
"Kitchen counter top? Our shop doesn't have that service but I know a shop that do that service, their labour fee is a bit high but I have seen their work, it is excellent. Do you want me to refer them to you? If they can work together with me, that would be better." Uncle Duan said.
"Please do so Uncle Duan." Bai Yi Yang said.
"Alright, I will make a call. If they are not busy I will bring them over later." Uncle Duan said.
Bai Yi Yang then start discussing about the wiring plan to Uncle Lu, mostly are choosing the type of light and the location, then how many sockets should be installed in each room and more.
"I want this kind of fan in all 5 rooms, 2 in the living rooms, 1 in this kitchen." Bai Yi Yang choose a ceiling fan with modern design with nickel coatings, it wasn't as big as the typical fan used in schools but not small either. Each is quite expensive, 408 yuan.
Uncle Lu look at her for a few times but didn't say anything, this product is really a bit expensive for a ceiling fan that has more cheaper options.
The lights was quite a lot, Bai Yi Yang wanted the kind that is flatly attached to the ceilling, 4 in each room, 8 in the living room, 1 in the 3 bathroom, 1 in the laundry room, 6 in the kitchen, 4 in the storage room that going to be transformed into Bai Yi Yang workshop, 1 in the storage and 2 in the hallway in the East house. The total of LED ceiling lamps needed are 45 lamps.
These kind of lighting is not expensive, only 19 yuan each.
"I never installed this much lamps in one house before. Yatou, you must like bright places right?" Uncle Lu said, amazed.
"Yes, the house is a bit dark at night. Uncle Lu will have quite a lot things to do." Bai Yi Yang said.
"That's not a problem, I can just bring more helper so the job finished early. We will charge 50 yuan per hour too, when you have job in the future, you must call us yeah?" Uncle Lu said.
"Of course, I will not look at other shop."Bai Yi Yang smiles.
They count the materials price and it came out as 4,719 yuan. Indeed, electronic thingy was really more expensive.
The shop conditions was that she may pay half or full for the materials, the labour free will be payed at the end after the job is done. Bai Yi Yang planned to pay for the materials first, if there were materials used, the shop can buy it back from the customer or the customer can keep it. So there is nothing to worry. They settled the account for the materials first which makes the two people more determined to do their work since they had received the money.
By the time the two left with Uncle Zhou to make preparations, it was already 9.00 am. The worker is halfway working on removing the roof tiles and thrown it to the outside of the courtyard house. After the three men said a few words to Bai Yi Yang, they left with Uncle Zhou truck.