While we love watching renovation TV shows, the reality of actually competing in them is a whole different ballgame. It might seem like pure wizardry to transform the homes on Dream Home in two-week stints, but when you consider the behind-the-scenes work that goes into those makeovers, you begin to imagine the sacrifices contestants are making to meet those tight timelines. Turns out, that work requires very little sleep and very creative sleeping solutions.
Speaking with Refinery29 Australia, Dream Home contestants Lara and Peter share the reality of what went on while they were renovating homes on Seven's new show — including the many sleepless nights they had, how long they were on site each day, and where they actually slept.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
The Dream Homes contestants say that when it came to sleep, it was limited on the show. "I think we did about three or four straight days without sleep," Peter tells us.
The couple explains that in the second half of the builds when half of the house has already been renovated, the teams often opted to sleep on-site so they could get everything finished in time. "The first half of the cycle you're in a hotel and the second half of the cycle you're on site," Peter says.
The couple explains that this was partially due to restrictions on working hours when the couples were staying off-site. "When you're off-site, if you're going to drive a car the next day, you have to be asleep by midnight," he says. "But if you're going to stay on-site, it's a free-for-all all."
In terms of the hours worked each day, Lara says that the days would often start at 6am. "The crews start rocking up at 6am, so we're awake anytime from 5:15am," she says. On the days that the cast weren't sleeping on-site, they had to leave by 4:30pm. "Basically, for the fairness of the competition, you couldn't leave and then other contestants still be on site because that's potentially getting ahead," she shares. "So we all left at the same time."
However, even on the nights spent at a hotel resulted in little rest, Laura explains, "We didn't sleep much when we were there. Because we were either on Pinterest or just researching. It was crazy for lack of sleep because we were just constantly working."
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
In terms of sleeping arrangements on site, it looks like it was less than glamorous — seemingly because they didn't want to sleep in the newly renovated beds. "We were always on the floor in a sleeping bag, but we had a door that we could close and a room for ourselves," Lara says. "We were actually quite lucky — we pretty much had a bedroom every cycle of every house!"
However, she shares that other people weren't so lucky. "If you're in communal spaces that aren't bedrooms, you're just on the floor in the middle of the kitchen or in the middle of the bathroom."
"To be honest, there wasn't much sleeping going on because it was constant work," she says.