The couple that tore down The Block and blew up social media a few weeks ago is home safe, waiting to receive its whopping $755,000 profit from the auction. The Greek girl from Kalamata and her husband Tim finished last on the leaderboard set by the judges, after storming off The Block during terrace week. Thankfully, they returned to finish the apartment and blew their $1,400,000 reserve, with their apartment eventually going under the hammer for $2,175,000, making it a record win for the show.

The Adelaide couple have returned home to their three children from past relationships – Taylor, 12, Seth, 11, and eight-year-old Ethan. They do admit The Block was an extremely hard process to go through, as their absence – not to mention the talk – has had quite an impact on the children. The two had to give up their jobs, which has put them in a difficult status financially.

“In hindsight, it’s interesting to look back on it,” Anastasia tells Neos Kosmos.

NK: How did you feel watching yourselves on TV? Would you have done anything differently?

Anastasia: Understandably, it is a TV show and there’s a lot of filming and editing involved, so inevitably you are bound to notice things that you did not pay attention to whilst on the show. You watch it through the eyes of someone else and you need to keep in mind it is a TV show. I don’t know if it was a true reflection of who we are. Everyone watches it through a different set of eyes.
There are a lot of things the public doesn’t see. At the end of the day, of course, you look back and say that some things, you could have done differently, but I guess we’ve come out the other end, we’ve met some great people.

NK: Have you kept in contact with any of the other contestants?

Anastasia: I think that all the new guys on The Block formed incredible friendships and all the contestants are great, so I believe we’ll maintain friendships or contact with all of them.

NK: What are your plans now that you have returned to your home and to your family?

Anastasia: We obviously have a mortgage to pay off. We are not rich people, so we need to be extra smart and careful with the rest of the money. We will consider what other opportunities are there in the future. We aren’t going to go out splurging.

NK: Was it hard for you to get by with having to forfeit your incomes to join the show?

Anastasia: It was definitely tough. We finished filming The Block and got back to our jobs within the next two days. It’s not like we had a rest or anything. When you come off a show, life needs to go on, you need to get back into your daily routine, your family. Back to reality. The reality is life outside the show. We are very happy for the help we received from our families that have supported us with our kids, so we could take part into this wonderful opportunity. We are grateful that everyone did really, really well on auction day, as everyone had worked hard and the rest of the couples had sacrificed a lot to get it.

NK: How has your life changed financially?

Anastasia: We haven’t seen any money yet. It’s not like you get paid as soon as the show is completed. The auction happened pretty close to life. It took place on Tuesday and it aired on Wednesday. It was pretty recent to be frank.

NK: Have you had any interesting job offers after leaving the show?

Anastasia: We haven’t really considered doing something else. Our only concern was to come back to our family and pick up where we left off with our jobs. Opportunities do come up but we are taking it day-by-day, as we want to think about what is best for our future long term.

NK: If you could single out the most engaging moment on the show, what would that be?

Anastasia: We got to do some amazing things that we would never have been able to experience otherwise and learned a lot, not just about ourselves but about people in general. We also got to do a room at the MCG, the Make a Wish Foundation. These are things we’ll take away with us. Things we are grateful for.

NK: Do you think that The Block experience has put more pressure on you and Tim as a couple, or has it bonded you even more?

Anastasia: Tim and I are a very strong couple and we were very determined going into that, having realised what it involves. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We hardly ever argue. I’m very lucky, as he is a very supportive partner. We always had each other’s back and we are very blessed.

NK: Whose decision was it to participate in The Block?

Anastasia: This is a bit complicated … We moved house probably nine months before we moved into The Block. We were renovating our house ourselves and people started urging us to submit an application. It was never on our radar, but everyone who knew us was suggesting we go for it. We haven’t had any tradies come to our house, instead we did everything ourselves. The Block, though, was a completely different world. What we learned was mind-blowing and had nothing to do with what we thought we knew when we were working on our house.

NK: What do you feel you have gained out of this, apart from the money?

Anastasia: Overall, I think it’s a lifetime opportunity and an extremely important experience. There are very few people in this world who are offered this chance to experience The Block.
I’m glad that we’ve done it and we’ve managed to come through to the other end. I’m happy that we actually finished, as at a couple of stages, to be honest, I didn’t think that was going to happen. We are grateful we came that far, being able to tick it off the list and say ‘we’ve done The Block’. It is a hard experience and a lot of people I guess can’t appreciate how difficult it is, unless they get to actually do it.
However, I certainly encourage people to apply. At the end of the day, regardless of the outcome, everyone should put themselves out there and apply – especially if they are interested in renovating and interior design. It opens your eyes to a whole new world you never thought was possible.

NK: What about Greece? Will you plan a trip back once you’re settled?

Anastasia: We moved to Greece when I was probably about five years old. We went there for a holiday and ended up staying for quite a while. I went to school in Kalamata and practically grew up there. My family returned to Australia in the mid-’80s. Since we came back, we’ve never really been able to go back due to many financial responsibilities. As I’ve said before, we are not rich people. I’d love to go back to where I grew up and see the house my grandmother lived in, share that emotion with my husband and our kids.