Why The Block’s Rachel and Ryan Carr scrapped their $2.4 million dream home plans for a vision closer to their hearts

Former The Block contestants Rachel and Ryan Carr were seven months deep into planning their dream forever home when they realised something had to change.

Sure, it was big with all the stunning features you’d expect from a couple who live and breathe renovating and design, but it meant overcapitalising on funds, saying no to holidays and precious time with their three young children and a lot of work, with Ryan doing the build himself.

The decision to strip back their $2.4 million design for something simpler came while living in the small home that’s already on the NSW Sutherland Shire block of land they bought in November last year.

After five years of being flat out with work and family, including running their own business, The R&R Design Co, welcoming their third child Tommy and being contestants on The Block in 2022, they realised they’ve never “felt as settled as what we do right now”. That’s despite the one-bedroom house being so tiny that Rachel and Ryan are sleeping in the living room.

“I think that that has really put things into perspective for us in terms of what you need and what you don’t need, and what matters and what doesn’t matter,” Rachel told nine.com.au.

“We’ve lived in both really big homes and smaller homes, and I think we thought because this was where we wanted to stay forever that this had to be the biggest home, and we came into it like that, we really moved in here with that mindset.

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“Then after living here… we just all feel calm, and I think that that’s made us realise, if we build the biggest house, it’s going to be so much work, we would have financially invested pretty much all we have.”

While many people have told the couple they love how the house looks as is, Rachel and Ryan need more than one bedroom for their family of five and the house is full of asbestos and mould so it really does need to be torn down.

They’re stripping back their original plans and in the process shaving $900,000 off the budget so they don’t overcapitalise. Rachel is currently in the middle of the design process because the mindset shift they’ve had with this renovation has her questioning everything to see if there is a better way to do the build while still making the home look custom-made.

“We’ve cut the floor plan down, we changed the facade; changing the facade alone, that saved us about $400,000. Cutting the floor plan saves money, but it doesn’t just save money on the build, it saves money in the long term because the bigger the floor plan, the more heating, the more cooling, the more cleaning – it just takes up more of your life. So that was the first thing we did… now we’re looking at different ways to build it.

“I’ve really gone down a rabbit hole there, and I’m looking at the smartest ways that you can build your home these days. As builders, we want to do the double brick and the concrete, but to do things like that now is just so expensive. So, do we do a frame and then how do we insulate that frame to make sure that we’re building the most sustainable home?”

With the philosophy of “every space has to earn its place” another element that’s changed from the original design is having a combined home office with a pull-out bed instead of a separate guest bedroom, which might’ve only been used a few times a year.

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Instead of a separate mudroom, it will be integrated into the laundry, so the kids still have somewhere to drop all their gear and shoes after sport and playtime. 

And the kids’ huge bedrooms from the original plan will now be smaller, and they’ll have a second living space for them to hang out in.

The focus now is also on the spaces they spend time in and where important moments take place and special memories are made. It’s something that has become clear while living in a small house where “there’s no space to get away from each other”.

“What I’m noticing is that we have certain areas in the house on the property that we all gravitate to anyway,” she said. 

“We’ve got a little makeshift fire pit that’s out the back currently, and we’re there all the time so that’s something that I’m wanting to invest my time in because on the first plan we had this huge cabana that was going to be built out there – it’s a luxury, but currently it’s not necessary.

“Building the cabana was going to cost about $300,000 – that’s not something that we need to be doing right now. If we find that in five years we’re in a position where we feel comfortable to be doing that, then that’s something we can do. But this little makeshift fire pit that we’ve got from Bunnings, we’re just going to zhuzh that up a little bit ourselves and that’s what we want to focus on right now.”

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Once the designs are finalised and approved by Council they plan to start building at the end of January next year and move into a rental while construction takes place. 

Freeing themselves up for a more affordable and simpler design means that they can even get started making changes to the back garden, and have some fun.

“We’ve realised we were holding back on doing anything because we were putting everything into the build. So the first thing that we did when we decided that we were going to free ourselves up a little bit was go and buy the kids monkey bars.

“We were like, ‘Let’s get out here’... we put a big swing off the tree out the back, and we just started utilising it. Taking the pressure off ourselves has allowed us to enjoy it more. So we’re all going to get stuck in, we’re going to go and redo the garden out the back, and we’re going to start the fire pit area now. I’d love to hopefully come back and even enjoy that while the build’s happening.”

Rachel admitted sharing the details of this decision and the design journey on Instagram is “scary”, but she and Ryan are hoping it will help others in a similar situation. It’s already proving to have struck a chord with the couple receiving lots of messages from others who have regretted pushing forward with a particular design or overcapitalised.

“Once we gave ourselves permission to change our minds, it’s just lifted such a weight… So my advice is to give yourself permission to change your mind, even if that means that you might be losing a little bit of money now on plans or things like that, it won’t matter in the grand scheme of things if you keep pushing ahead and overcapitalise.

“And question everything and see if there’s smarter ways to do things because that’s what we’re doing now, we’re questioning everything and that is really opening up so much for us.”