One day, Adam Thorn hopes his daughter Shylah might become a chip off the old block and compete on a TV home renovation show alongside him.
Adam โ who won the first season of The Block with wife Fiona Mills in 2003 โ would โdefinitelyโ compete in the reno show again in a heartbeat.
But he might need a new partner before that happens.โOne hundred per cent he would do it again,โ laughs mother-of-two Fiona. โBut Iโd have to have a long hard think about it. I donโt think Iโve got a thick enough skin to cope with the social media pressure on contestants today.โ
โWe had a good shot at it and it was great, but Iโd probably have to let Ad go with someone else now. Shylah might team up for a father-daughter partnership in 10 yearsโ time, you never know!โ
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The family are ready for the next generation of The Block.
(Image: Phillip Castleton)Amazingly, for most of their lives, 12-year-old Shylah and sister Aria, 10, had been blissfully unaware of their parentsโ top-rating reality TV fame, which still sees them recognised from the Baltics to Bali.
โThey didnโt find out about it until about three years ago,โ smiles Fiona, who runs a successful cosmetic laser beauty business. โThey had been watching one of the recent series of The Block and were really getting into it.โ
โWe asked if they knew we had been on the show, and they thought we were joking. So we got out the old DVD and they loved it. But you know what? They lost interest before the end when we actually won!โ
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The couple have kept their former stardom at bay.
(Image: Getty)โTHE SHOW CHANGED SO MUCHโ
Former fitness trainer Adam, now 50, says, โThe kids were quite intrigued by how young we looked! But so many things have changed since then, including the way The Block is made.
โA lot of people probably donโt understand that we had to keep our day jobs and build through the night. It was completely exhausting, physically and mentally.โ
โDay three of the first week, Fiona fell asleep with a paintbrush in her hand! That kind of set the paceโฆโ
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โOne hundred per cent he would do it again.โ
(Image: Phillip Castleton)โBut Fiona and I thought we were pretty good at renovations,โ recalls Adam, who works in design and project management.
โWe were both sales reps back then, but weโd already done one house each, individually, and finished one together.โ
โSo when we heard about auditions for this new show, we decided weโd give it a go. We werenโt in it to be famous. We just wanted to get ahead in life and thought we might win!โ
From the get-go, the good-looking, ambitious couple from Sydneyโs western suburbs were considered clear favourites.
At the end of the 12-week build, they sold their ground-floor Bondi apartment for $751,000, earning them a profit of $156,000, plus the $100,000 prize.
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The family have since moved into their Eastern Suburbs beach house.
(Image: Phillip Castleton)Their winnings enabled them to buy a Queensland investment property, and they released a book, Adam And Fionaโs Renos On A Budget: How We Renovated Our Way To The Block.
The show also gifted them lifelong friends in fellow Blockheads Warren โWazโ Sonin, Gav Atkins and Amity Dry.
โWe just chat and say hello every now and then,โ explains Fiona, 48. โThe Block became a TV sensation, but it was an unknown situation going into it and we went through a lot together. It was a big deal for all of us!โ
Ironically, the couple reckon they probably wouldnโt be cast in the TV favourite today. โThey seem to want contestants with really interesting, quirky backstories and that wasnโt us,โ says Adam. โWe were just renovators, and we still are. Weโve done four houses since The Block.โ
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The family outside their Coogee home.
(Image: Phillip Castleton)Back in the day, Fiona dreamed of one day owning a house by the sea. Two years ago that wish came true when she and Adam bought a rundown, six-bedroom Federation home in Sydneyโs beachside Coogee for $4.095 million.
โItโs taken many, many years to reach this point and weโre still together,โ she chuckles. โThe Block was a means to an end, and it certainly helped us get where we are today. Weโre so thankful to be here in our forever home.โ
So no more renovations? Adam just grins and says, โNever say never, hey?โ