Pictures: Babiche Martens
Last time Woman’s Day spoke to Jemma and Alvaro Pasek, they’d just been named the winners of House Rules NZ and said they hoped the $100,000 prize money might help them have a baby and start a family.
“Having a baby is our obligation to the nation now,” joked Alvaro – and now the Aucklanders are ecstatic to announce they’re fulfilling that duty with a daughter on the way!
“We knew it was a girl because two of my siblings had dream pregnancies with their boys and that wasn’t the case for us!” laughs Jemma, 32, who suffered from severe morning sickness throughout her first trimester. “I was throwing up 12 times a day. It was nonstop, all the time.”
But although she did become very dehydrated, the teacher managed to stay out of hospital.
“I was being sick so many times a day, but slowly it got less and less, then at the beginning of the year, it kind of disappeared and I was great for a while. Now I’m just tired!”
At 32 weeks, excitement is finally setting in for the pair. The baby prep has started, but one thing they don’t have to worry about is their home. It was renovated by the Three reality show’s four other teams.
“We still have the wall!” says Jemma, referring to the controversial decision by one of the teams to ignore the requested “Scandi-coastal” theme and clad the dining room in questionable metallic blue wallpaper.
“It’s so funny,” says builder Alvaro, 34. “Everybody who comes over asks to see it and, to be honest, most people actually quite like it.”
There isn’t much they want to overhaul about their home, even though none of the interior décor was their choice.
“We’re looking at changing a few things in the nursery,” tells Jemma. “We like the wallpaper, but it doesn’t match the rest of the house in terms of colour scheme. We’re not dead set on changing the dining wall – if we find something we really like, we’ll change it. It’s just not a huge priority.”
Most of the prize money went towards the mortgage.
“I know that sounds boring, but right now, while everything is expensive, it’s probably the best thing to do,” explains Alvaro. Although, he adds they did take two fun trips to Australia to visit family and attend a wedding.
“And we bought a Dyson!” adds Jemma, happy with her one big appliance purchase.
Of course, there was also that generous gift of $20,000 to their fiercest House Rules competitors, Martinique Glass and Andre Helm. Needless to say, they’re still close friends.
“We stay in touch a lot,” says Jemma. “We have a little chat group and Martinique is quite active on social media, so we’re always chatting to each other. They let us know that the money we gifted them helped Andre take some time off over summer and they went on holiday. That was lovely.”
Plans for a recent reunion were thwarted by Jemma’s sickness, but they hope to reschedule sometime soon. Martinique and Andre might be able to help with choosing a name for their new addition – a task that has proved to be challenging for the pair!
“I’ve had a list in my phone for a while,” says Jemma. “Being a teacher, there are a lot of names you almost wouldn’t want to associate with!”
Alvaro adds, “Every night, she’s looking through Instagram posts for names!”
“Now it’s messed with my algorithm,” she laughs, adding that so far they only have four names on their shortlist.
When asked if they see themselves growing their brood after their wee girl is welcomed into the world, they seem hopeful.
“I’ve always said that once you have one, you sort of subscribe to a second,” says Alvaro. “My best mate is an only child and he spent a lot of time by himself. When I hear that, I’m like, ‘We definitely need to have a second!’ But two is where we stop.”
Jemma adds, “Well, I’m one of three, so that seems normal to me. It’s what I know.”
“Our plan is definitely to have a second,” confirms Alvaro. “We’ll figure it out from there!”
