Multi-Use Service Yard with a Fermentation Nook

152

Minimalist
HDB (BTO)
~1,000 sqft
3 br
Couple Living

Welcome to our tiny service yard that holds many uses for us. Besides a space to do our laundry, currently, it’s also a space for us to store our fermentation brews, a small stretch of plants along the windowsill & storage of othe miscellaneous items. To be honest, we have never really thought much about how we were going to use this space besides just doing laundry. All of these that we have added subsequently are just things that we are enjoying at this current point of time.
Right before the entrance of our service yard is our kitchen. After living here for a little over a year in our home, I have to say, I don’t really like the default bifold doors. They look space saving, but it’s hard to access the area right behind the door once it’s folded. Personally, if I had to redo this space, I would switch the doors to a sliding door instead. And instead of the louvre window, I would either seal it or have a fixed glass panel instead since we always keep our windows closed anyway.
I added a curtain at the door of our service yard for privacy since our service yard faces our neighbour. I made this curtain with fabric I bought from Chinatown. It’s a really easy sew with just one rectangle! We also have this same pattern but in a different colour for our main entrance gate to prevent people from peering into our home.
Sometime last year, one day I just decided that I wanted to make my own kombucha. With that, it led to my husband’s huge interest in fermentation which in turn somehow, became his career now. So, this is a shared space for both of us to make our fermentations. We used to place our fermentation on our kitchen counter but moving it here makes more sense in terms of space.
The top shelf I have all the main fermentations we have ongoing. Here, I have a scoby hotel which is essentially a probiotic jelly like substance that I will use to make my next brew. I will then keep them to reuse for future batches.
My husband is making a citrus peel vinegar currently.
The next shelf holds our extra vessels when we need to make more fermentation. Currently, it’s a low season for us in our fermentation brews 😆
The next shelf holds our dried tea leaves that we use to flavour our kombuchas or make syrups with them.
One of our most unconventional choice in our service yard was choosing not to have any windows/grills. Instead, we had the entire space covered with insect mesh. We didn’t like how enclosing window grills feels like and honestly, didn’t feel the need to have them because of our current lifestyles. We have two cats, but we don’t let them into the service yard without our supervision and always keep the doors closed. As for windows, we didn’t think it was necessary to have windows since we need to have as much ventilation in our service yard to dry our clothes better. Having windows would only hinder with the process and may possibly cause bad smells due to slow drying.
We of course made use of the semi outdoor space to place some of our plants and cuttings that we are rooting. I love how that giant plant at the back is slowly creeping up our toilet window! Excuse the dusty insect mesh, we'll clean it soon! But also, now that I think about it, it's probably better to have a dusty insect mesh than a dusty service yard.
If you think you don’t have a green thumb, try snake plants! They’re really fuss free. They don’t need much sun, even though they will grow better with sun, and watering about once every 1-2 months if it’s in a shaded area.
And of course, the main duties we do here in our service yard is to do our laundry. I’ve been meaning to have a washing machine rack to house our laundry things, but it’s not exactly a priority right now. So, one day, I’ll do that. Also, we should probably switch our the red container to something else, one day also.
Because of how small the space is, we opted for a foldable basket to place our wet laundry in before hanging them dry.
Because of our low budget, we of course could not afford the hanging dryers and the additional monthly bills. So, we kept things simple and have a fan turned on to help dry the clothes faster since we don’t have sunlight coming into our service yard.
On the other side of our service yard, we have a bar table that we have had since the beginning before we moved in. The artworks are just to cover paint marks we have had time to fix 😆 The dehumidifier is to help collect water to also help with the drying process of our clothes.
Here, we have a simple bin for our dirty laundry. We have it here because it’s easy for us to just open the door slightly and slot our hand in to throw our clothes into the bin.
We have a dehydrator which we’re still experimenting with.
And right below the bar table, we store our extra cat litter and kibbles here. Yes, we use two types of cat litter in our home 😁By the way, this is by far the best value for money tofu litter that works the best, in my opinion!
And lastly, we have ceiling light+fan. I noticed that a lot of homeowners don’t have some sort of fan in the service yard. Personally, just hanging my laundry makes me sweat. So, this helps me cool down. Now, there’s an oscillating version of this fan which I would suggest over this one that I have. Mine only blows wind in one direction. Overall, I think our service yard has been really functional for us despite no built-ins. Although, we do intend to convert this into a pink room! And have enclosed carpentry to keep things out of sight. The carpentry section may be where it will be converted into a pizza making corner for my husband along with an electric pizza cooker. That’s the dream for now 😮‍💨