Transforming a 3-room BTO in Singapore for 5 people
Our 3-room BTO flat renovation journey – how we created space for innovative designs but more importantly, contentment in our hearts.
So this happened. Uchify saw the reel that our interior designer, The Interior Lab, posted on their Instagram here:
And asked if they could also film our home. Just a shout out to Lee Wei Kai, our interior designer. Leave a comment or reach out to me if you’re interested to get in touch with him!
You might be wondering how we even thought of such a design… actually I didn’t contribute anything. Ls and I have very distinct strengths and mine is clearly not in the realm of design. I cannot visualise anything aesthetic to save myself - so, all design credit for this house goes to Ls!
Nevertheless, we were both surprised when Uchify wanted to film our house since we did not intend to design it to be featured, but just wanted our home to be fun, functional and child-friendly.
[All photos of the house featured are also credited to The Interior Lab]
We moved into our BTO last December after completing renovations. The total cost we spent is about $40k excluding the furniture and fittings. This is probably a pretty modest sum and we really tried our best to manage the cost given our budget constraints.
The total size of our flat is about 69 square metres. There are 2 rooms - the master bedroom and a spare room. We hacked down the walls of the spare room and used curtains as a divider instead, so that in the day time we could have a larger living space.
Many people ask us why we chose to stay in a 3-room flat instead of a 4-room flat. There are 2 primary reasons:
In 2019 when we bid for a BTO, it was our second attempt. Our first attempt at a 4-room flat failed as it was oversubscribed. We wanted to get married in 2020, so we did not want to fail at our attempt again. Therefore, we opted to bid for a 3-room flat as it was 3 times undersubscribed as compared to a 4-room flat.
We wanted location over space. Our current flat is located in Kallang, close to the MRT and many places we often frequent such as our church. For a 3-room flat in Kallang, it is already costly at around $420k. You can only imagine how costly a 4-room would be. Given our budget constraints, we decided that we would opt for a flat that we could afford.
Who knew that by the time we actually moved into our flat 4 years later, we would have one toddler and a baby on the way?
We have a helper and my mother-in-law stays with us over the weekends. We convert the sofa bed into a queen bed (2 mattresses side by side) when she comes over. Enya and the new baby will continue to sleep with us in the master bedroom until we move into a new house.
Therefore, once the second child is born, at peak, there will be 4 adults, 1 toddler and 1 infant living in this flat.
Many people have asked us if we feel that the house is too small, and if we will be moving to a bigger flat. Thankfully, our minimum occupation period is 5 years, not 10. Our natural answer is yes, we do desire to have a bigger place especially when the kids grow older.
We have also visited many other flats that our newly-wedded peers have moved into. So far, we only know a handful that have children and stay in 3-room flats.
This is our sleeping situation - one of the funny things is that as Enya is growing into a big toddler, Ls has relegated himself to sleeping on a single mattress at the foot of our queen bed so that Enya can sleep in his spot with me. We will put the baby cot beside our queen bed. So we expect that Ls will continue to sleep at the foot of the bed while I will be flanked by the baby and Enya on my left and right respectively.
Some friends are curious about how we can sleep with Enya for the next 5 years (she will be 7 years old by then). The second child will be 5 years old. Honestly, I cannot give an answer because I would not know how the children will feel. However, as of today, sleeping with Enya has made every night sweet and every morning even sweeter. There are no morning blues, and Ls and I look forward to coming home every single day just to spend the evening with her.
While both of us acknowledge that yes we do have lesser space in a 3-room flat, we both genuinely feel very happy and content with our current living situation. It takes us about 30 mins to get to our church, KK Hospital and town area where I often have meetings for work. Even if we cab around, it usually costs $10 or less. Further, this area is surrounded by awesome food!
Ls and my parents grew up with little. Ls shared a bedroom with his siblings all the way until they were in their mid-20s. My parents had no house at one point in their early years, so they stayed with my grandmother. 2 adults, 3 children and my mom bearing the 4th child, slept in one room for one year as my parents waited for their flat. I was too young to remember how the situation felt, but never once did I feel unhappy due to the lack of space.
I am reminded that children do not know discontent, unless the adults feed it to them. To me, early years of ‘hardship’ that my parents went through are just stories since I never felt anything but happiness and joy growing up with them and my siblings.
I also had the privilege of going on a mission trip to Tondo, Manila in the Philippines in 2017, thanks to my church and Metro World Child. There, we followed Pastor Bill Wilson and his team for one week. Metro World Child ministers to the children in the slums of cities around the world, bringing them food, hope and Sunday School services.
It was my first time visiting the slums of Tondo, and Pastor Bill aptly said it - once you have seen something, you cannot unsee it. The people, the children and the living conditions will always be etched in my memory.
There is no end to comparison in this life. It is easy to forget the sufferings or actual living conditions outside the bubble of Singapore. It is also easy to just focus on the first world problems and look to the curated lives on social media as a benchmark for our own.
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” - 1 Timothy 6:6
We dare not claim that we are godly nor content. We are work in progress. However, this maxim is something that we would like to constantly strive towards.
Do we desire to live in a bigger flat? Yes.
Did we try to appeal to HDB to lower our minimum occupation period so that we can sell our flat within 5 years? Yes.
Did we succeed? No.
Will we try to appeal again? Perhaps.
Are we in a hurry to sell our flat and upgrade? No.
A desire for more does not equate to discontentment. As our pastor aptly puts it:
Don’t confuse contentment with satisfaction.
Contentment comes out of simplicity.
Satisfaction comes out of complacency.
We should be contented but never satisfied because we can never rise above our level of satisfaction. Therefore, I am content with my life and lifestyle but I am never satisfied with my ministry and service to God.- My Answer to Prosperity Theology – Contentment, Simplicity & Generosity
Above all, we are grateful for a place to call our own, a place where we can build our little family and live and work in peace.
I hope that this article inspires you beyond the aesthetic design! If you have more, rejoice. If you have less, you can still rejoice!