What is the status of my new home after moving in? How is life living in an HDB 2-room Flexi flat all by myself? Are there any home defects?
My previous blog post on ‘Moving into HDB 2-room Flexi Flat‘ has topped my list of popular blog posts. And some of you have even asked me questions regarding my new home. I will try my best to answer all of it through this post. Should you have further questions, just leave a comment in the blog post below and I will reply right away!
To begin with, this HDB 2-room Flexi Flat is solely owned by my parents who will be moving in once I move out. I’m staying temporarily here till my new 4-room HDB flat is ready. Likewise, I will be documenting my ‘home migration’ journey here on my blog. In addition, this HDB 2-room Flexi Flat is actually a new BTO flat which is bought under the short-lease 2-room Flexi Scheme for the elderly. Under this scheme, the 2-room flats are leased out for a specific period of years (e.g 30 or 35 years). So technically, this flat is owned by HDB and they are just leasing this flat to my parents for a fraction of a cost of a typical 99-years lease HDB flat.
For you readers to have a better understanding of how the flat is like, here’s a floor plan of our 2-room Flexi flat.
The 2-Room Flexi Flat Floorplan
There are two types of 2-room Flexi flat. Ours is type 2 which has a total floor area of 48 sqm. But in reality, the total internal floor area is only 45 sqm as the air-con ledge itself occupies 3 sqm.
Is a 2-room flat too small to live in?
I personally felt that the size of a 2-room flat is perfect for two people to live in. Any more than that, you will start to feel a little cram. For me, it was rather spacious. I still have more storage space at home which I’ve not filled up. Having that said, I do consider myself to be a minimalist so I do not own a lot of items and I hate clutters. But soon, these storage spaces will be filled up by my parents’ keepsakes and collectables which they can’t bear to throw away.
Ready for a house tour? I will be posting up a house tour video on my YouTube channel too so do stay tuned.
Here’s my HDB 2-room Flexi Flat House Tour!
Welcome to my humble little home. It is nowhere close to those Pinterest-inspired homes as I wanted to live in a livable space which requires minimal tidying and maintenance. That would only also means no pets and no living plants. Moreover, my budget for this temporary home is kept low so I did not spend much on purchasing any furniture or decorative items.
I only spent on the big-ticket items like washing machine, refrigerator and the bathroom sink. All the furniture you see here in the pictures were either already fixed up by HDB (included in our cost price) or brought over from our old house.
What was already included in the package?
The basic finishes like ceilings, kitchen and bathroom walls and floorings are included. In addition, we also opted for the lightings, switches, built-in kitchen cabinets, built-in wardrobe, window grilles, mirrors and clothes drying rack to be built at an extra cost. Since everything was already constructed, we could move in right away.
Also, this flat is supposedly designed for the elderly. Hence, you will also notice that everything is designed in such a way that it is more wheel-chair friendly. For instance, the doorway is wider and there are grab bars in the toilets. Even my neighbours are in their fifties and sixties too.
The Kitchen
I’m starting off with our kitchen first as that’s the first room you will see on your right when you enter the main door which is made of solid timber wood.
Built-in Kitchen Cabinet
Our kitchen came with built-in kitchen cabinets and clothes drying racks. HDB has also installed the gas hob, cooker hood, kitchen sink and dish drying rack for us. Even the lightings and window grilles were all done up by them as we opted for these additional fittings.
We were very pleased with how everything turns out as the furnishings of the cabinet looked great. The only qualms we had was the two rollable cabinets under the gas hob which can be wheeled out so that those sitting on the wheelchair can wheel themselves in and cook at the hob with ease. As such, whenever we tugged the drawer with some force, the whole cabinet will wheel towards us. A little inconvenient, I am getting used to it.
Clothes Drying Rack
The clothes drying rack was surprising very useful and easy to use. I thought that I would end up getting a dryer machine instead. Thanks to the drying ability of our LG washing machine, the laundry was semi-dry after washing. Once I hung them up on the rack, it dries pretty quickly within hours.
The drying rack can be manoeuvred up and down by pulling or releasing the black strap which hooked to the wall.
Over at the other corner of the kitchen, there is a space to place your refrigerator right next to the kitchen cabinet. I will do a separate blog post review of my SHARP refrigerator and LG washing machine soon.
There are actually a lot of storage spaces in the kitchen to store all your kitchenware utensils, appliances and food items. Thus, I’m glad that HDB has designed the kitchen layout and cabinets in such a way that space was fully optimised.
The Bathroom
Our bathroom came with mirror fittings, a water heater with a showerhead, lightings and water closet suite a.k.a the toilet bowl. We bought our own sink that comes attached to a cabinet. We also bought the shower curtain rack from a home appliance store as well as the shower curtain from IKEA.
The Dining Room
The white-painted door you see on your left is the door to the bomb shelter which is currently used as a storeroom. And just right next to it is our cosy dining area. It is also currently used as a study area. I would usually do my laptop and journal walk on the dining table. Thus, our refurbished dining table doubles up as a study table.
The Dining Table
Yes, our wooden dining table is actually a second-hand item. But we painted it white as I was going for a clean minimalist look. Accompanying the table is two cushioned chairs which were old dining chairs we reused from our old place. To give it a new look, I bought chair covers from Shopee for a few bucks.
The dining room is small but just enough to place a small dining table. You can place a 4-seater dining table there though. However, I wanted to reserve some space to do my daily workouts and yoga.
The Living Room
The Samsung television and everything else you see here was brought over by my parents from our old house. To make them look new and swanky, we painted the tabletop black and polished the wooden cabinet.
We were fortunate as we managed to get all the furniture we needed without having to spend a single cent on it. Even this dark grey IKEA sofa was given by a family friend. To jazz up its look, I furnished it with a couple of mustard-coloured cushion covers. The cushions add a pop of colour to brighten up the living area.
The bedroom
Last but not least, we have the bedroom. I am into floor sleeping after reading up on all the health benefits of floor sleeping or sleeping on thin mattresses like a futon. I got this Queen size memory foam mattress topper from SleepWiz. It took me a few days to get used to sleeping on thinner padding but it all worked out fine in the end. I actually woke up more refreshed each morning.
Next to my bedside is a small foldable table and a vintage rattan table which I had since I was just a kid! I placed all my essential oils, scented candles and diffuser on it.
Built-in Wardrobe
At the corner of the room is the built-in wardrobe done up by HDB. In my opinion, the dimensions of the wardrobe are way too big. If only, it is more compact, the bedroom would have seemed a little larger. But there is a lot of storage space at the top cabinets of the wardrobe. Currently, the storage space is underused as I do not own a lot of clothes, to begin with. A walk-in wardrobe is not my kind of thing. I will also write a separate blog post article on my minimalist lifestyle and philosophy.
At the moment, the bedroom is looking pretty empty at of now. I am planning to add some pictures or photo frames to liven up space. What do you think?
If you have any questions or ideas which you would like to share, just leave them as a comment below. I promise I will answer all of them! Hope you find this blog post useful as there aren’t many articles on our current 2-room HDB flat. Besides, the HDB showroom looks a little unrealistic and ‘too perfect’. So it is hard to envision how your living space should look like. Hope this helps!
See you next post!
Updates on 1 March 2020: It’s been almost 8 months since moving in. Defects in the house have started to show up. Toilet bowl and water heater have both been leaking water. No wonder our water bills have shot up two months ago! It turns out that the contractor hired by HDB did not fix the toilet bowl properly and the water heater parts have been broken.
