House Rules' Aaron and Daniella: 'Our prize money is gone'
Gold Coast parents Aaron and Daniella may have taken home $200,000 last year as the winners of House Rules, but they didn't quit their day jobs!
In fact, every cent of the prize money went straight back into their new business Hype Building and Design when the season was over.
‘No more prize money,’ Daniella reveals to New Idea.
‘I wanted to go on a holiday, I’m dead exhausted, but after we finished, Aaron was like: “We’re not going to go anywhere. We’re starting a business, we’re buying another house, we’re flipping, we’re thinking about the future.”’
The couple, who are busy parents to Jaxon, four, and Brooklyn, two, went straight from House Rules to another renovation project.
‘It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,’ Daniella says. ‘I think giving birth was easier and that’s saying something!’
Since late last year, Aaron and Daniella have already bought, renovated and sold another property on the Gold Coast.
However, their hard work came at a price.
Five years ago, Aaron was bedridden in a Sydney hospital, facing major surgery that carried a 70 per cent chance of rendering him a paraplegic.
And the carpenter was terrified that he was set to end up in a wheelchair when he started to have neck pain again late last year.
‘Unfortunately, Aaron’s neck has been playing up again,’ Daniella reveals.
‘It was irritation and inflammation. A nerve was pushing on his disc, so he lost all sensation in his leg – so that wasn’t pleasant.
‘He’s had to go back into hospital and get tests done to see if another disc has ruptured.’ Luckily, doctors were able to assist Aaron and, with some careful physiotherapy, life has gone mostly back to normal.
‘He’s still working extremely hard but he's got lots of physio so we had to buy special machines for his recovery.’
For the full story, and more House Rules exclusives, see this weeks issue of New Idea - out now!
Plus, to meet all the teams competing on 2018's House Rules, see here.
