Hannah and Jonny made a big sacrifice to get their dream home

There are tears on Dream Home this week – happy ones – as the renovators’ children drop in for a surprise visit. For Hannah and Jonny – working on Liam’s Queensland home along with Jacinta and Jordan from Sydney and Melbourne’s Brad and Mel – it’s a chance to see their twins, who were just six months old when they decided to go on the show.

“It was a big moment when our kids all showed up,” Jonny tells TV WEEK.

Hannah adds: “That was the first and only time we saw Jordan cry.”

Digital marketer Hannah, 33, and DJ/emcee Jonny, 41, welcomed Goldie and Theo in March last year, after a pregnancy that got very tough towards the end.

“Breathing was a challenge, standing was a challenge,” Hannah remembers.

The first six months of parenthood were a blur – “I didn’t get more than two hours’ sleep at a time,” Hannah says – but it did help prepare the couple for the sleep deprivation that would come with Dream Home.

“I mean, nobody’s really prepared for the 22-hour days we were pulling,” Hannah adds, “but for me, when I started and I had my first sleep, it was about eight hours, and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m a new human!’”

With the twins being so young, Hannah and Jonny knew they would miss some milestones during the months spent away from them. One of those turned out to be Goldie learning to walk.

“We were doing our normal night-time FaceTime and we saw Goldie stumble forward three or four steps, and both Jonny and I were like, ‘Did she just walk?’” Hannah says. “We all cheered. And then we got off the phone and were bawling our eyes out.”

For the Brisbane couple, the surprise visit from the twins this week is a bright spot in their most stressful renovation so far.

“We literally didn’t think we were going to finish,” Jonny says.

On the last afternoon before judging, a huge storm sweeps in.

“Everything grinds to a halt,” Hannah adds. “We just felt like, what more could be thrown at us? As you’ll see, we were both at breaking point.”