Not a bad idea – buy a house, go on a reality television series and have the whole place renovated for nothing, right?
Well, there is a small catch – your newly purchased house will be made over by a bunch of total strangers.
This was the predicament Emu Plains couple Ryan Pusic and Candy Stuart were in when they signed up for the second series of Channel Seven’s hit renovation show, ‘House Rules’.
From the makers of the mega hit ‘My Kitchen Rules’, ‘House Rules’ sees six teams from around the country put their homes on the line and their skills to the test in a fight for supremacy and a life changing prize – their entire mortgage paid off.
Speaking with the Weekender, the couple said they got the idea to apply for the show after seeing an ad on Gumtree.
“Candy and I were always big fans of the show but it was more luck than anything how we got on. I was at home one day looking up Gumtree to find a new sparky for my electrical business and I saw the show was advertising for contestants,” Ryan said.
“We purchased our home in Emu Plains in July last year and we were both really nervous about having strangers renovate our house but excited at the same time,” Candy added.
The homes are divided up into five zones with contestants having seven days to renovate one zone, for example a bathroom, with five special ‘house rules’ the home’s owners give the contestants prior.
Ryan admitted while the whole experience was rather nerve-racking to begin with, he knew the show’s other five couples would be feeling the same butterflies as he and Candy.
“Your home is everything, so we definitely took that into account when we were renovating other people’s homes and we’re sure the other teams did that as well,” he said.
“We pretty much put our lives on hold for a few months because we were so focused on the competition. You’re so involved in everything that you don’t have time to even answer your phone,” Candy added.
Ryan, who grew up and was schooled in Penrith, said there was no better place for him and his partner Candy, originally from Port Macquarie, to settle down and have a family.
“Even the other contestants said our street is really nice. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it out west,” Candy added.
‘House Rules’ premieres soon.
