NOVPUB
Chapter 637: Chapter 627 Finding the Engineering Team
The three of them hadn’t gone far when they found a restaurant not far from the municipal government complex and sat down.
Because it was a private restaurant, the service was very good, and unlike before, there was no need to serve oneself at the counter; now there were menus in private restaurants.
"Come on, Director Bai, take a look and see what you’d like to eat," Zhang Bin, who knew how to handle things, promptly handed the menu to Director Bai, the official with the highest rank.
"No need, no need, I’m fine with anything. Let’s let Xiaoshen order first. We must take care of the only lady present," Director Bai said, pushing the menu towards Shen Yunfang.
Shen Yunfang certainly couldn’t be the first to order and quickly pushed the menu back. After a back and forth, it ended up with Director Bai ordering a dish first, followed closely by Shen Yunfang ordering one, and finally, Zhang Bin chose two dishes and ordered a soup.
The three of them had four dishes and a soup, which was not wasteful but also enough to eat.
While waiting for the dishes, driven by Director Bai’s leading, Shen Yunfang and Zhang Bin started discussing building construction.
Shen Yunfang didn’t hold back; she had urgent business and when she found out that Zhang Bin’s construction team was currently available and could start immediately, she went over her requirements for the dormitory building she wanted to construct in detail.
Zhang Bin listened to her description and made some mental calculations before saying, "Xiaoshen, we can construct your building. Not long ago, we cooperated with the municipal government and built several five-story residential buildings in Xicheng District. If we plan this out well, such a small building can be completed in about two months. However, do you have a procedure for construction materials and such?"
"Speaking of that, I’ll still need to trouble you, Brother Zhang. You see, I have no experience in this industry and haven’t been in Z Province for a long time, so I really don’t know what materials are needed to build a house or how much is required for a three-story building. I was thinking, could you help me handle these matters? I’ll just pay for it," Shen Yunfang thought it best to leave it all to someone else, saving herself the hassle, even if it cost a bit more.
Zhang Bin was surprised to hear her say this; nowadays, building a house involved managing all aspects, even when building for the government, materials were prepared and ready.
"It’s not impossible, but you need to understand, Xiaoshen, if I take care of purchasing the building materials, the price might vary. In such a case, finalizing the accounts could become complicated," Zhang Bin would, of course, prefer to handle both labor and materials, as that would mean more profit for him, but he had to be upfront about potential issues to avoid any conflict over expenses later on.
"Heh, Brother Zhang, don’t worry about that. My thought is, you provide a full package with labor and materials and then give me a budget. I’ll see if I can afford your budget, and if the price is acceptable to me, I’ll transfer the money directly to you. How you build it or manage it, I don’t mind. In the end, I only care about inspecting the completed building," stated Shen Yunfang, thinking like a modern real estate developer.
"Then explain in detail what a budget is and how it’s done; I’ve never done it before and don’t understand these things," Zhang Bin felt that it would be great if it worked out that way, but as an old farmer, he really didn’t know how to go about the budget Shen Yunfang referred to.
So, during the meal, Shen Yunfang explained in detail to Zhang Bin how to prepare a construction project budget.
She explained to Zhang Bin in the simplest terms, and their kind of budgeting didn’t need to be very strict; a rough outline of each expense category would suffice.
Zhang Bin nodded as he listened, indicating he understood, and promised that he would get to it once he returned, aiming to have the budget ready within three days.
The meal was a happy occasion for everyone. When it came time to settle the bill, Director Bai insisted on paying, but the server came over to say the bill had already been taken care of. Shen Yunfang and Director Bai then turned to Zhang Bin, who had just been to the bathroom—it was probably then that he had sneakily paid the check.
"You, you, what am I going to do with you? You can’t be doing this again in the future," Director Bai muttered as he walked out of the restaurant.
"Hehe, Director Bai, you’ve introduced such a big business deal to me, I have to show some gratitude, right? Otherwise, I’d feel embarrassed to come knocking on your door in the future," Zhang Bin said, unfazed by the director’s nattering and chuckling heartily behind him.
Shen Yunfang also smiled along, yet she didn’t find Zhang Bin simple-minded at all. If he were as naive as he seemed, he could never have made his way from the countryside and gained a foothold in the provincial city.
Shen Yunfang parted ways with them at the restaurant entrance, as she still needed to visit the bank that afternoon.
Being a long-standing client and with a special recommendation from city leaders, Shen Yunfang found it relatively easy to secure another loan from the bank. She used the land she had contracted as collateral and borrowed six hundred thousand yuan.
Three days later, Shen Yunfang and Zhang Bin met again, and Zhang Bin brought her a simplified version of the budget.
Shen Yunfang reviewed it and saw that the final budget totaled one hundred and fifty thousand yuan.
Seeing her frown, Zhang Bin feared she might find it expensive and quickly explained, "Xiaoshen, given the area and layout you specified, this price is really not high. Let me tell you, building a house in the countryside is different from a building here. Back home, building a three-room tiled house now costs around a thousand yuan, and a five-room house would be about seventeen hundred, but if you were to add a second story to that three-room house, it would roughly come down to about fourteen hundred. Do you understand what I mean?"
"So what you mean, Zhang Ge, is that building higher is actually more cost-effective—cheapest in the end, right?" She understood that the first floor, or the foundation, was the most expensive part, so building three floors might not cost much more than building five.
"Exactly, exactly, that’s what I mean. If you were to build five stories, I could do it for two hundred thousand," Zhang Bin said, pleased that Shen Yunfang grasped his point and nodded. "This is already a very favorable price, and I’m being honest with you. I own a brick kiln back home, so I have my own supply of bricks and stone for construction. I’m giving you the lowest possible price, really not making anything from you—otherwise, this price is impossible to achieve."
Shen Yunfang considered for a moment—two hundred thousand to build a five-story dormitory didn’t seem too expensive, especially considering that in the future, nothing less than a million yuan would suffice.
So, she nodded, "Okay, I can accept this price, but I have some conditions. I can’t give you the full two hundred thousand at once. I can give you a down payment of one hundred and fifty thousand, and the rest only after the building is completed and I have inspected and approved it. This dormitory is for my workers to live in, so during construction, you can’t skimp on building materials or cut corners. If I find you’ve built a shoddy, tofu-dreg project upon inspection, I will not pay the final installment."
