NEW LEASE ON LIFE
For the new season of Selling Houses Australia, it’s the show itself that has undergone a big change, writes Siobhan Duck
DRAMATIC. That’s truly the best word to describe the impact that a fresh coat of paint, colourful furnishings, and a reconfigured floor plan can have on a tired old building, and it’s exactly the kind of transformation that audiences love to see on Selling Houses Australia. However, when the beloved lifestyle series returns for its 14th season this week, the most noteworthy makeover won’t be to a run-down house, it will be to the show itself.
Interiors expert Shaynna Blaze and landscaper Charlie Albone, who had been part of the awardwinning presenting team since its premiere in 2008, have bowed out to pursue other roles on free-toair TV. So this year, real estate doyen Andrew Winter welcomes two newcomers: interior designer Wendy Moore and former Brisbane Broncos star-turnedgarden-guru Dennis Scott.
“They’re very different to Shaynna and Charlie, but that’s not a negative,” Winter says.
“Everybody has a different way and a different style. Wendy’s experience is quite different to Shaynna’s. And it’s the same with Dennis. [Unlike Charlie], he didn’t fall in love with landscaping from the age of 17 because he had a sports career. He tried other things before he got involved with landscaping. So their expertise comes from different places. I think that’s nice because it mixes it up.”
Winter particularly relished Moore’s reactions to the dilapidated, and occasionally stinky, properties. “I’d see Wendy, who has spent all those years working with beautiful interiors in the magazine world, and then she meets me and I take her to not necessarily some of Australia’s fi nest,” he says, laughing.
A longtime fan of the series, Moore – who was a former judge on House Rules – says she knew exactly what to expect with Selling Houses Australia and didn’t come into it trying to be Shaynna Blaze 2.0. “It’s always hard when you’re replacing someone who you really love and you respect,” Moore explains. “I had a really good chat with her beforehand and she was great and also quite generous. I mean, it’s nerveracking when you know how loved the show is, but at the same time, you can’t let the fear of not being good enough stop you.”
Ultimately, it wasn’t just the prospect of joining an established show that proved challenging: the pandemic also threw a spanner into the construction schedule.
For Queensland-based Winter and Scott, this meant they were trapped in Sydney – away from friends and families – for five months, while Moore juggled home-schooling her 11-year-old twin daughters.
On the more positive side, Moore says, Covid-safe restrictions led to the trio having regular dinners together and Winter seizing the opportunity to renew his real estate licence. An avid runner, Moore encouraged the boys to join her pounding the pavement. While Winter politely declined her invitation, preferring a daily stroll instead, former NRL player Scott jumped at the chance. He shed 15kg and now plans to join Moore in running a charity marathon in November.
“Amazingly, none of us, Dennis, Andrew and myself, actually got Covid,” she says. “I mean we were super careful because we were so scared of getting it and shutting down the production, but there were delays in being able to get to places and delays in getting building done because sometimes we were only able to have one trade on site, which was difficult. But at the same time, it’s amazing how much we actually got to do.”
SELLING HOUSES AUSTRALIA
NEW SEASON PREMIERES AT 7PM, WEDNESDAY, FOXTEL