"We had done a little bit of painting of our house and we had always been very creative," Maxine said.

"Karstan restored cars and I loved art, but we were definitely not seasoned renovators."

At the time, the couple's experience on the tools was limited to a modest "jazz up" of an old house they rented from Karstan's grandmother.

"That was all we had done in terms of renovating and now looking back, it is laughable," Karstan said.

"It was really bad."

A decade later, the couple has carved out a career as travel video bloggers and become parents to Zuri, 4, and Zena who was born in September at the tail end of the couple's latest renovation project, The Palms.

These days they are a well-oiled machine, with Maxine's eye for design and former coal mine worker Karstan's skills as a builder having embarked on a career change after The Block when he completed a mature age carpentry apprenticeship at 28.

The exhaustive project saw a dark and dingy 1990s townhouse in Merewether transformed into a light and bright luxury coastal-inspired holiday rental.

Named The Palms, the renovation is the result of a 10-month effort from the couple who lived in the home throughout the entire process.

"Initially we said, 'Cool, we're going to get in, get everything done in four months' and it was a full 10 months from start to finish working seven days a week," Maxine said.

"It was non-stop and I was pregnant, no days off, sleeping on the floor in swags."

Karstan designed a new floorplan for the home which was completely gutted and rebuilt.

From the sandstone featured on the fence to the plunge pool in the backyard, the luxury home was designed to bring the laidback feel of Northern NSW and Queensland to Newcastle.

"We were saying, 'OK, everything we do needs to be taken to the next level' which is really silly because I was pregnant throughout the whole renovation and we just wanted to keep upping the ante," Maxine said.

"We wanted to make this one of Newcastle's best Airbnbs and we wanted it to be something we could be proud of as well, so we were constantly asking, 'What else can we do?' or 'How about we put a pool in in the backyard?'. It just evolved."

Set across two levels, the home's ground floor has the open-plan kitchen, dining and lounge area and a powder room.

Upstairs has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a separate powder room (both with arched barn doors) and a second living area.

Earthy tones are used throughout, such as terracotta tiles in the main bathroom, and paired with vivid white walls and brushed gold tapware.

A feature of the bathroom is a freestanding fluted bath tub, while custom-made racks and hanging rails designed to hold luggage were chosen rather than built-ins to give the property a "holiday feel".

"You can place your suitcases on there and hang your clothes rather than have built-ins so it doesn't feel like we've just moved out," she said.

The house sleeps up to eight guests, with two double bedrooms and a third bedroom with a double bunk bed built by Karstan.

A new staircase was installed to improve the flow of natural light into the home, along with the addition of a skylight.

"When we bought the house it was very dark," Karstan said.

"That's where the staircase was a major design feature because it brings that light straight down into the house."

The couple sourced from various Newcastle-based suppliers including Earp Bros for the tiles, Havwoods' engineered timber floors and Nova for the flat-pack kitchen built by Karstan which features a striking Travertine tiled rangehood and integrated appliances.

The living area flows out to a private backyard with a heated plunge pool, built-in barbecue area, bamboo screening and The Palms signage to create the perfect Instagram backdrop for guests.

The finishing touch was the installation of a mature palm tree in the front yard.

The three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom property will operate as a short-term holiday rental, The Palms, as the couple prepare to hit the road in their van with their two young children for a trek across Australia.

It marks their third journey around the country and will be documented in videos on their social media channels.

The couple has built a following of 200,000 subscribers with their travel and lifestyle content across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

"We are always looking at new challenges but are are always looking at new income streams for us," Maxine said.

"The last house we had we rented out while we travelled before we sold it.

"Right before we hit the road [in 2020] we bought this house and we were tossing up whether we should leave it as is and rent it out or potentially could we try something totally different and do a holiday rental?

"It was a dream project of ours and we thought if we could make it work it would also really benefit us with flexibility to travel."

The married couple, who have been together for 17 years after meeting online as teenagers, recognised a gap in the short-term holiday rental market in Newcastle.

"I feel like we saw a niche in Newcastle," Maxine said.

"We thought, 'So many people are visiting Newcastle but that are not that many Airbnbs that are specifically built to be an Airbnb.

"Lots of people rent out their own house on Airbnb but we saw an opportunity where people can come here and feel like they're in a little villa on holidays."