"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.
To be continued...