Playing by the rules:
House Rules favourites Kate Whiting and Harry Harris found that living their house-renovation dream could be something of a nightmare – but they still didn’t resort to dirty tricks.
No dirty tricks from House Rules favourites.
While some House Rules contestants have taken a hammering on social media, South Australians Kate Whiting and Harry Harris have nailed it.
“Some of the other teams, like the girls (Fiona and Nicole), got absolutely roasted on social media,” Harris says, admitting most of the comments he and Whiting received were positive.
“I felt a bit sorry for them, but you understand when you go on the show that while you want to be as real as possible, in the back of your mind you’ve got to remember there are millions of people who are going to watch and judge you.
“If you have an argument you have to remember that. They never did, so they did it to themselves really.”
Fiona and Nicole caused the biggest backlash any contestants on the show have ever faced when they were far from grateful for the massive rebuild their bush shack was given by fellow competitors in this season’s first episode. They went on to fight their way through future episodes and ignored the house rules on Harris and Whiting’s home by refusing to make the living room open plan. “I couldn’t believe how hard at times some of the contestants were to deal with and, unfortunately for them, I think they forgot the whole of Australia was going to see their behaviour,” Whiting says. “I felt for them, I must admit. They are nice people and they were under a lot of stress and often you don’t see the best side of us when we’re stressed.” While the two women have been spat on and had trouble finding jobs since the
show ended, Whiting and Harris could not be happier.
On House Rules, six Australian couples makeover each other’s home in the hope of winning $200,000.
Whiting and Harris said they had so much fun they would happily do it all over again.
“It was my dream,” admits Harris, a carpenter by trade. “A few years ago I was lying in bed with Kate saying, ‘Imagine if we had unlimited money and we could just renovate a house’ and the next thing you know we are on House Rules. It was like a dream come true.”
However, at times that dream came close to turning into a nightmare as the couple argued over design choices with Harris reluctant to concede his teacher partner might be right.
“Kate didn’t really love design or anything like that so, for me, it was pretty hard to let her take control which now, looking back, I definitely should have,” he says, admitting to being massively surprised at his partner’s previously undiscovered talent for design.
However, neither is concerned how the battles over design choices played out on national television.
“(When we signed on for the show) we knew we would have some interesting moments but we’ve always been very open about that,” Whiting says. “We do have arguments but we get over them very quickly so I was OK with that.”
In fact, they are very grateful for what the experience has given them.
“It’s put us 10 years ahead of where we would have been otherwise. It wasn’t easy but it was definitely worth it,” Whiting says.
“The hardest part was definitely being away from our (two-year-old) son, Xavier. I’d barely had a night away from him prior to the show.
“Now it’s all over, I don’t know how we did it to be honest, but you just have to at the time.”
The couple say seeing their renovated home for the first time was an amazing experience.
“Obviously we lived in half a house so anything was an improvement but when we walked in it was just unbelievable,” Harris says. “The tiling, the colour scheme, the kitchen … everything was amazing.”
Whiting was over the moon at not having to live in a garage any more.
“It’s a really surreal thing to walk in and see your house renovated. It just doesn’t feel like your home. It feels all too good to be true. We were just so lucky.”
“It’s put us 10 years ahead of where we would have been otherwise. It wasn’t easy but it was definitely worth it.” – Kate Whiting