Humpy Walls

When we were hunting for our home, one of the criteria I had was that the layout had to be squarish. No odd v-shaped or circle shaped walls. Those create wasted space and corners which you can't really utilise.

So we were excited when we found our 'ideal' home. Our apartment is basically squarish in layout. However, within the apartments there were inlets and turns  in all sorts of sizes. After seeing many homes in the area, these design flaw seems to punctuate flats of the early 90s era. Was it a construction technological limitation? I doubt so, the ones built in late 70s through 80s were fine. No, it's HDB trying to create fancy homes but at a budget, hence the somewhat non-flatten exterior and messy interiors.

Now we are left with corners which are weird and challenged on its utility. You'll never find a off-the-shelf cupboard or fixture you can put in the inlets to fully maximise the space. Your only option is to create customised built-in cabinets or cupboard, which by the way cost double to triple the ala carte ones.

We addressed the uneven walls in our master bedroom with built-in but our budget couldn't take the same for the other rooms. So now we are left to compromise on the space. Find a reasonable furniture to utilise 60-70% of the space and live with the space inefficiency till we can afford to install built-ins. And that means having to measure every twist and turn of the walls ... it takes quite awhile I must say ...

I suppose some would say these gives the apartment character ... not your blocky squarish 4 by 4 unit. Hmmm, if we didn't have to pay for the floor space I suppose you could say that. But when your 126sqm unit actually gives you only 120sqm of usable space ... you would cringe too at the wasted space. Oh and don't get me started on the inlet beneath every window ... the HDB architect that designed this must have a dent in his head.