$1.47 Million Wedding Present for Young Victorian Couple

For one young Ballarat family, believing they could one day win was the first step toward calling a $1.47 million Sunshine Coast Prize Home theirs.

“Me and the wife were manifesting a fair bit around these prize homes,” said Troy, a father of two young boys aged one and two.

“We’d have the brochure from the mail and pin it on our cork board, and then I’d put the draw date in my calendar, which I did with most of them.”

Troy and his wife, Kristen, had long been fans of the Sunshine Coast and had hopes of migrating north to the Sunshine State, sooner rather than later.

“The Sunshine Coast is our ultimate holiday destination,” he said.

“We usually knock around the Cotton Tree/Maroochydore area because we had friends that lived up there.”

“We were considering moving up later this year, so that got fast tracked a bit which is amazing.”

In fact, the timing of Troy and Kristen’s win couldn’t have been better, with the handover of their brand-new Caloundra beach house taking place just five days after their wedding day in December 2021.

“The seventeenth we tied the knot and then two days later we started our journey up.”

“I drove up with the dogs and a trailer full of boxes and Kristen flew up two days later.”

Although Troy made it to Queensland first, he agreed not to visit their new home until his wife was by his side.

“She said don’t go there without me!” he said.

But they didn’t have to wait long. Just a couple of days later, Troy and Kristen stepped over the threshold of their new home.

“As soon as we rolled up to the joint it was pretty mind boggling,” Troy said.

And no wonder. Their stunning new contemporary beach house is positioned high on the hill in Caloundra with spectacular views looking east to Moffat Beach, Dicky Beach and Currimundi.

With the handover taking place just three days before Christmas, it was the perfect place to celebrate the festive season.

“We had Kristen’s sister and her family here for New Year’s Eve which was a bit of fun. We saw the fireworks from the deck and everything.”

Even the couple’s two boys are making the most of their new Sunshine Coast home.

“They are loving the pool,” Troy laughed.

The young family’s new life couldn’t be more different than the life they left behind in Victoria.

“We got a bike with the home and then we bought another one with all of the kid attachments, so we are at the beach every day.

“We’re loving riding to Currimundi. It’s nice and kid friendly with the waterway there and same with Moffat Beach.

“That whole coastal pathway that goes through all of those beaches is just ideal.”

Just a few months ago, Troy was working long hours doing night shift on one of the tunnels in Melbourne.

But now, the young Dad is enjoying a more laid-back, stress-free lifestyle on the Sunshine Coast.

“Two months in and it still feels like we’ve overdone our stay at a beautiful Airbnb,” Troy said.

“We’re a lot more relaxed. I have taken a not-so-strenuous job compared to my last one, so it’s nice to come home and not be knackered on the couch.

“It’s good to know that you have the financial freedom,” he added.

Troy’s decision to try his luck in Endeavour Foundation Prize Home lotteries has paid off for the family in a big way.

“My first purchased ticket was October 2020, so exactly one year from the first purchased ticket, to cleaning up!”

Fast forward a few months, and Troy is now living in the very home that they had pinned on the cork board back in Ballarat.

Planning to move into a new home – even if it is a Prize Home – is a big undertaking with a young family, especially if the move is from interstate.

Fortunately, Endeavour Foundation’s Prize Manager, Will, is on hand to make the handover process as smooth as possible.

“Will’s been really good with everything – I reckon I was ringing him every five days just to get that reassurance that it’s real.”

Now that Troy and his family have the keys to their new Sunshine Coast beach house and are settling in, they are finally feeling like their dream is now a reality.

And if Troy needed any help at all to come back down to earth, his energetic toddlers are on hand to ‘keep it real’.

“The house is a bit of a mess, so it feels like home.”