Leo and Lorraine Carvalho were living their dream, pouring their life savings and years of hard work into their Lyons home – until a knock on the door changed everything.
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The couple's dream has become their nightmare, after discovering they are living at the epicentre of Canberra's Mr Fluffy asbestos crisis – the home where the company founder Dirk Jansen began his deadly trade.
The creator of the toxic legacy not only pumped loose-fill asbestos into his own home but stored bags of the dangerous substance on the property.
In 2003 Mr Carvalho, now 70, bought the large block in the leafy green suburb and began building up the sprawling garden.
Over the years the couple has ploughed $500,000 into building the home they've always dreamed of, but their three-bedroom home is one of 1021 across Canberra the ACT government plans to bulldoze before 2020.
In July 2014, a letter from the ACT government arrived telling them their home was a Mr Fluffy house. The couple was confident their house was safe, as it had undergone a clean-up in the early 1990s and was completely cleared of asbestos risk by a certifier during renovations in 2004.
"The letter came and I rang up and said we don't have anything here because we had gutted the place during the build in 2004," Mrs Carvalho said. "I am like most other Canberrans, who thought well they have cleaned it out and it's gone."
But days later, a man who had worked installing Mr Fluffy insulation knocked on their door and told them the home was previously Mr Jansen's and that countless bags of loose-fill asbestos were stored on their block.
It was then that anxiety set in.
An asbestos assessment done in July 2014 revealed no contamination in any of the living areas but confirmed the presence of fibrous amosite asbestos in two lower-level garage storage areas.
Despite the block's disturbing history, Mr Carvalho said it being Mr Jansen's former home had little bearing on what lay ahead.
"This house is not Jansen's anymore and I paid a fair price for it," he said. "Mr Jansen's house or not it doesn't make a difference now, because all the Mr Fluffy houses are in the same boat."
Mrs Carvalho said she felt robbed.
"We've put a fortune into this house and we are not going to get it back," she said. "To see everything we have earned wiped out like this…it's as if you don't exist."
Throughout 36 years of marriage Mrs Carvalho said her husband had never stopped working.
After a long career in construction, he has spent the past 15 years working in administration at the ACT Magistrates Court.
She said the financial blow they'd been dealt might mean her husband never retired.
"He is 70 and he can't work forever," she said.
Mrs Carvalho, 58, gave 21 years of service to the Australian Federal Police before retiring in 2005.
She said the valuation they had received fell $200,000 short of what they'd need to relocate. But at at their age, no bank was going to offer them such a substantial loan.
Compounding the financial loss, the couple said relocating might mean leaving the ACT and their family.
"Being separated from our family has never been a feasible option for us," she said. "But we have to think about real alternatives."
While the couple had little choice but to opt into the buy-back scheme, they said they would not be forced out of their home.
Faced with the heartbreaking reality they might lose what they have worked their whole lives for, Mr Carvalho said he just wished somebody had told him sooner.
"If someone had said to me when we bought in 2003 'Leo demolish it' I would have levelled the whole thing," Mr Carvalho said. "They [The ACT government] had 10 years to let me know to stop investing."
