Living on a Mountain with my Husband

Chapter 34: A NEW HOME

Zimo had slept a lot during the day, he didn't think he could fall asleep easily when night came. However the moment Zimo cuddled up into LongWei's arms he fell into a deep, dreamless, sleep.

The next morning waking up he felt a lot better.

"Baby, how are you feeling?" LongWei asked.

"I'm okay dear, let's go home." Zimo said showing his cute dimples. Seeing this LongWei felt relieved, gave Zimo a sweet kiss, and got up to wash up and leave.

"Wah! What was that. Are we now a couple who kiss each good morning now?" Zimo thought as he turned red a dove back under the quilt.

...

As they travelled up the mountain LongWei decided to bring up the idea of building on house for the winter.

"Baby, when winter comes, we need to move to the village."
Zimo looked back at LongWei. "Why?"

"The mountains are a lot colder and there is a lot of snow. If we stay there it will be dangerous." LongWei patiently explained.

"No, let's stay in the mountains, it's our home. I like it there." Zimo said this with a stern look. The last time LongWei saw this look was when Zimo was determined to pick the Sichuan peppers.

"Baby, it's really dangerous, and your body won't be able to handle the cold."

If we make the house warmer it should be okay, right?" Zimo countered.

"How can we make the house warmer?" LongWei asked curiously.

"Let's build a log house. If we make a log house the walls will be a lot thicker, and heat won't be able to get out. We can also add heating behind the walls and under the floor, and a kang bed. We should also build a covered path to the chicken coop and barn for the mule. Hm. It's will look great when we are done." Zimo nodded his head proudly and determined to make it happen.

"What's a log house? Is it a house made of wood, I won't say they aren't warmer, but it's not enough?" LongWei explained.

"No it's better than just wood, you strip a whole tree down to the trunk and stack them up. Then, you will the cracks with mud sealing the inside." Zimo explained excitedly.

LongWei tried to imagine what he said. "Stacking trees would be thicker and warmer, but how would they make it safe. Wouldn't the trees fall down?"

The two talked more and more as they went up the mountain. If what Zimo described was possible, it certainly would be a lot warmer. And he wanted to make an underground storage room for their food. If they stocked enough, they wouldn't need to leave the house. The only problem currently was labour. LongWei was strong but lifting large logs and stacking them would not be possible without help.

"If we do this baby, we need to hire people to come help. Are you fine with people coming up and helping us build the new house?" LongWei asked. He knew one of the reasons Zimo liked the place so much was that no one knew where they were.

"It's okay, even if they come here once, it's not easy the remember the way." Zimo said.

"Okay, then you draw out the designs and I'll do my best to make us money. If we want to use logs, I need to start cutting them down now. They will need a long time to dry before we can use them to build anything." LongWei said, he was on board with the whole idea. Even if it didn't work, if it could make his little birdie happy it was worth the effort and money.

....

Zimo was excited about designing their home. It needed to be used in the winter so heating was important and everything would need to be in one area. He decided on a simple box design, split in four equal pieces. The first box would be the living area with the entrance to the underground cellar for storage., next to it would be the kitchen box. The third was the bedroom, and the last box would be for the animals. Like Zimo and LongWei the animals would need somewhere warm to stay, he would put in a big barn door they could open to let the chickens and mule out for a walk. Their would be a door from this room into the house. He didn't want to let the smell pass through, so it would be tightly sealed, but still share two walls that and a small pipe allowing the heat to go in.

The size wouldn't be very big, but it was just the two of them. And keeping it small meant the heat wouldn't need to travel far.

The heating itself wasn't too difficult to plan for. The outside walls would be logs, but the inside would be hollow mud walls connected to the stove in the kitchen and the kang in the bedroom. The floor would also be raised with a mud maze for heating.

It looked simple on the outside, but below the surface would be complicated. They could get the stones, logs, and mud easily on the mountain, but they would also needs some other building supplies such as dry planks and bricks, and tiles for the roof. It was a lot for two people to do.

Zimo quickly drew out his plans and LongWei felt a lot more confident after looking at it. It was definitely more detailed and well thought out than he originally thought. "My little birdie really is the best. He thought as he admired the drawing.

...