When life gives you lemons you make lemonade – or in Sarah-Jane and Tom Calleja’s case, the caravan of your dreams!
The Block favourites are a long way from their mansion in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, after scoring just $20,000 for their three-month-long renovation efforts, but life couldn’t be better for the happy-go-lucky couple.
WATCH: The Block‘s Sarah-Jane and Tom’s caravan tour
The pair are in the process of giving their caravan a makeover, all while living in it, just like on their old show.
“We were saving to go to Europe in 2017 when we saw this old van … we bought it for $12,000 and then slowly over the next few months we started fixing it up,” Sarah-Jane said of her “home away from home”.
Fans were thrilled to see the pair enjoying their renovated humble abode, after being forced to sell their Ford Ranger to break even.
“Unfortunately for Tom, we will sell the Ford and we will be walking away with 100k so no complaints from us,” Sarah-Jane wrote on Instagram.
Tom and Sarah-Jane won the $80,000 Ford Ranger following their success in Landscape Week.
Following the “disappointing” sale, the couple revealed to Nine that they had spent “more than $20,000 of our savings” to participate in the renovation show.
“That was a hard moment but life’s thrown harder things our way and 20k is 20k more than what we had yesterday but definitely less than if we had of just stayed at home and worked,” the couple wrote on social media.
Presumably, one of the ‘harder things’ the couple are referring to is Sarah-Jane’s five year wait to get a double mastectomy.
Sarah-Jane announced to her Instagram followers that she underwent the major procedure (she needed to because she’s a BRCA1 gene carrier; meaning she has an increased risk of developing breast cancer) shortly after The Block’s auction night.
But Sarah-Jane was on the waitlist for five years to get the preventative surgery.
“It’s been a long time in the making – I’ve been on this list for five-plus years. Then, the day before The Block auction, they called me: ‘We’ve got a spot for you,’” she said on Instagram.
For more, pick up a copy of New Idea. On sale now!
