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Darren Palmer just bought a house for $1.60. This is how he’s going to transform it
Exclusive: Darren Palmer’s exact words when he stepped inside the €1 ($AU1.60) Italian villa he and Shaynna Blaze just bought and were about to renovate were: “Oh f--k, what have we signed up for?”
For years, towns across Italy have been selling dilapidated homes for less than $2 to Australians who promise to restore it in an attempt to reverse depopulation, a scheme that has proven popular with Aussies looking for a change of scenery.
Darren Palmer and Shaynna Blaze might have bitten off more than they can chew with 1 Euro House. Nine
The crumbling Italian villa doesn’t look like much, which is probably why it cost less than a coffee. Nine
Darren and Shaynna decided to jump on the bandwagon in their new show 1 Euro House to show everyday Aussies that it is possible to turn a derelict Italian dwelling into a liveable home on a tight budget.
But The Block judges realised they might have bitten off more than they could chew when they first stepped into the multi-century-old property in the historic Sicilian village of Castronovo.
“It looked like somebody had lived a full life there, and then left in the middle of that life. Then it was left to deteriorate,” Darren told nine.com.au.
When he initially heard the pitch for the show, he couldn’t say yes fast enough.
“I received the phone call while I was filming The Block, which meant I was travelling every single weekend to Melbourne for three months,” he said.
“It was starting to turn towards the cooler weather, and they asked me if I would like to do a show in Sicily in summer with my friend.
“I was like, ‘Yes, of course!’ It’s a dream project. It’s a job of a lifetime.”
Darren looked up the villa they were going to be renovating on Google Earth but didn’t realise how bad things were until he stepped through the door into a crumbling home that looked like it hadn’t been touched in 70 years.
The kitchen looked like it hadn’t been touched in decades when Palmer and Blaze first stepped inside. Nine
A peek inside one of the bedrooms revealed it wasn’t much better. Nine
One room looked more like a dungeon than an Italian escape, and the timber support beams holding the whole place up were full of woodworm.
Realising they had a mammoth reno job ahead of them, Darren and Shaynna got straight into demolishing what couldn’t be fixed.
That was when the crew learned about his nickname, “Bull at a Gate Palmer”.
“I am literally just the guy that will bulldoze through a fence. I have an eye for detail, but a sledgehammer approach,” he laughed.
What was hiding in the basement beggared belief. Nine
Darren was tasked with smashing up a hideous wall unit and using a jackhammer to destroy what looked like a cheese storage box in the building’s basement.
He’s pretty sure a few slow-motion shirtless shots of that particular moment even made the final cut.
After removing what they could, it was time to renovate everything else, which sounds a lot easier on paper, especially when you’re working in a team.
Darren confessed he and Shaynna didn’t always see eye-to-eye during the project but after so many years of friendship and collaboration, they know how to handle their differences. He can’t say the same of all his relationships.
“Listen, if I did a renovation with my husband, I’d be divorced,” he joked.
Darren learned how to do everything from tiling to laying stacked stone as he and Shaynna worked to transform the run-down villa into something liveable on a tight budget and with limited contacts in a small town in Sicily.
That last limitation was particularly difficult for them to come to terms with.
After years of judging The Block together, these two design gurus know how to collaborate ... even when they don’t see eye to eye. Nine
“In Australia, Shaynna and I both have a great deal of fantastic relationships with the marketing directors of most of the biggest companies in Australia,” Darren said.
“In Sicily, we don’t, so there were Zoom calls and online orders and spreadsheets and having things built on site.”
Did it make him feel for the contestants on The Block?
Well, they get to work with a long list of sponsors while he and Blaze had to do without in Italy, so take from that what you will!
Having been on a reality TV renovation show before, Darren knows how hard it can be but confessed his experience on 1 Euro House was a totally different beast – but that was the point.
He and Shaynna wanted to prove to everyday Aussies that it is very possible to buy a house in Italy for $1.60 and renovate it on a tight budget, and without any fancy industry contacts.
“You should be inspired to do it! Just don’t waltz in there thinking that anybody can do it,” Darren said.
“It does take some planning, and it does take strong relationships, and it does take getting your hands dirty.”
So, how did the renovation turn out in the end? Palmer wouldn’t share any specifics, but what he did reveal spoke volumes.
“We didn’t have any local suppliers relationships, we had a fraction of the budget that The Block would have, and a fairly realistic budget for everyday Australians,” he said.
“Given all of those things, and given the fact that we DIY-ed half of it and sewed things and upholstered things and physically put a lot of ourselves into the home, I think when the viewers see the finished home, they will love it.
“And given that we both have really high standards, we did a great job!”
1 Euro House premieres on Channel 9 and 9Now tonight at 8.40pm.
