Life after House Rules for Gold Coast couple Aaron and Daniella Winter

THERE’S $200k sitting in Aaron and Daniella’s piggy bank, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to relax, in fact, they’re ready to change the Gold Coast.

House Rules winners, Aaron and Daniella are all smiles. Picture: Jerad Williams

ON the surface, it’s all pretty normal for Broadbeach Waters couple Aaron and Daniella Winter.

Most mornings they get up between 5.30 and 6am, often stirred by their sons Jaxon, 3, and Brooklyn, 1. Aaron gets ready for work, ideally squeezing in a workout.

Daniella works from home, taking care of business while she wrangles the kids.

All a pretty normal picture of domestic life ... although they did just win $200,000 on national home renovation reality show House Rules and are launching a company that will break new ground on the Gold Coast.

“It’s been a massive whirlwind — we’re still sitting on cloud nine,” Daniella says.

“Every day we wake up and look what we’ve got — brand new house and nothing added on to the mortgage. We can just sit back, relax a little bit and not stress.”

Aaron adds: “I think it’s all about what you can make after the show as well, being proactive and making the best of the opportunities that come your way.

“We’re just sitting here constantly thinking, what’s next.”

Hey Daniella, what’s next if you getting splashed by your wild hubby! Picture: Jerad Williams

And next they plan to make their reality TV experience even more real.

Lifestyle channel junkies may have watched Flip or Flop, Fixer Uppers, Love it or List It, Flipping Out — the list goes on — but Aaron and Daniella will bring the TV phenomena to life on the Goldie.

“The business is called Hype Build and Design, and it’s basically a construction flipping business,” Daniella says.

“You come to us, we’re the pro flippers and we’ll flip your house in four weeks.

“Kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and one feature piece whether it’s a feature wall or lots of wallpaper.”

“It’s a one-stop shop — you can have designs done through us, you can get the build done, furnishings done — everything can be done,” Aaron says.

With carpenter Aaron’s existing relationships in the field, Daniella’s knack for design and their experience in high-pressure builds, the duo are confident they can make a real splash in an age where people want instant results.

“A lot of people want to turn around things like this super quick,” Daniella says.

“They get approved for a loan and want it done there and then.

“They don’t want to have to wait, especially when they’ve got a family to house.”

There’s no shortage of ideas from the pair that polarised House Rules judges with their cutting-edge concepts.

Aaron and Daniella’s very GC backyard has made their dreams come true, now they’re ready to pass on the feeling. Picture: Jerad Williams.

“I think we’ve got some amazing ideas that will blow some people out of the water,” Aaron says.

“Stuff people on the GC have never seen before. We want to make a real living out of this, this is the dream job for me.”

Their own newly renovated house is about to become the guinea pig for one of those big ideas.

“We want to get three shipping containers and put them on top of our house and make a second storey, an upstairs area,” Daniella explains.

“From one end of the house to the other it works out to be three perfect shipping containers and covers the existing house to make a whole new floor,” Aaron says.

“Originally we wanted to do a shipping container home, because nobody on the Gold Coast does them and they’re cost effective as well,” Daniella continues.

“So after the show we thought ‘Well we’ve got our dream home, we love our street, let’s still go for it.’ We’ll have to get them craned in.”

Luckily, there’s a little bit of coin in the kitty to fund the second story, but they haven’t been on an extravagant holiday and there’s no new Ferrari in the driveway.

“The money is actually on the home loan for the moment,” Daniella says.

“It’s a lot of money, but at the same time it’s not.

“You’ve got to be smart and you’ve got to grow on it.

“We’re taking a trip to Cairns and we flew up Kate and Harry all this week.”

“And we spoiled the babysitters,” Aaron interjects.

“Amazing people. We’d never be in this position without them.”

Keeping the family going was very much a team effort during filming of House Rules, Daniella says.

You can see why it’d be difficult for Aaron and Daniella to be apart from Brooklyn (L) and Jaxon, but it all worked out in the end. Picture: Jerad Williams

“What we had to do was split up our children, so Jaxon our eldest went to Aaron’s parents because they’re really active and he’s quite active — as you can see ...”

Cut to Jaxon flinging around a floppy stuffed toy.

“My dad is 83 and my mum has osteoarthritis so Brooklyn the baby went to them.

“Then the kids would meet up together on the weekend at my sister’s house.

“They gave up their whole life for seven months — or you could pretty much say a year — to fulfil our dreams.”

As is the case in the era of social media, everyone has an opinion they like to voice, and of course there was the occasional remark on the topic of the couple’s parenting.

“There were a couple of remarks along the lines of ‘How could they leave their children behind?’” Daniella says.

“But if you know us as a couple, it was the hardest thing we ever did.

“It’s not easy, but if everyone could see what we have now to what we had prior and the struggles.

“We worked around the clock just to get what we wanted. Why is it OK for parents to be away from their kids with normal full-time work?

“The aim was to provide for our family, all we did differently was go on a show.”

Aaron and Daniella with Jaxon (left) and Brooklyn. Picture: Jerad Williams

Aaron admits the kids are occasionally affected by the attention the family receives when they leave the house, but they’re remedying the situation with lots of time together.

“We’ll go out for coffee at a normal coffee shop and people come over and get pictures, and we’re OK with it, it’s part of the deal and we’re always happy to talk to people,” he says.

“Everyone we run into is lovely. But the kids do find it a bit overwhelming.”

“We went to sushi the other night, and I was about to shovel a piece of sushi into my mouth and out the corner of my eye there’s this person just snapping away,” Daniella laughs.

“They’d be great photos — she’s mid-mouthful, I’m 12 plates down,” Aaron laughs along.

“Jaxon is just losing it, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone,” Daniella continues.

“He just thinks ‘Who are all these strangers talking to our parents? I want their attention,’ because he hasn’t had our undivided attention in almost a year. And that’s fair enough.

“So that’s why at the moment I’m a full-time mummy, I’m working from home and making sure they have what they need.”

The little lads weren’t forgotten during the House Rules renovations. Picture: Jerad Williams

At this moment, little Brooklyn pops up, one shoe missing revealing an adorably colourful sock as he gleefully chuffs along behind a giant Thomas the Tank Engine.

It’s no wonder Mum and Dad are so intent on creating the best life possible for him and his big brother.

“Right now we’re into setting up our future and being proactive,” Daniella says.

“We’re really proactive. Every night before we go to bed we have a list, a his and hers list, and that’s my list of things to attack for the day and Aaron’s list of things to attack for the day ... lists people! Lists are good.”

“It’s not just about changing our lives and our kid’s lives though, we’ve got plenty of friends and family whose lives we want to make a positive change in as well,” Aaron continues.

“It’s about proactively influencing everyone around us and it’s infectious.”

With a work ethic that revolves around being smart, being proactive and ... making lists ... it’s easy to believe this couple would have found success one way or another, but they’ve seen struggles too. It goes to show how much can change in a year.

“Life this time last year was s — t,” Daniella says.

With this casually out the back of Aaron and Daniella Winter's newly renovated home, life has definitely turned around. Photo: Jerad Williams

“It was stressful, I was going through a really bad pregnancy, we were buying the house — or Aaron was buying the house I should say — it was roughly about this time last year.

“Walking into the property I was ready to kill him. Kill him or divorce him, one of the two.”

Now Aaron says he equates life with opportunity.

“I almost have to pinch myself and wonder ‘Would that have come our way if it wasn’t for the show?’ “Probably not.

“I’d like to think we’d make it happen and we’d try damn hard but who knows.”