The apartment shared by Rosella Sciurti and Daniel Fischer rings with laughter as they try to navigate an app used to lower their window blinds.
The couple, both now aged in their early 30s, weathered much of the pandemic in the space.
"We became best friends because we were doing all the things together and supporting each other," Ms Sciurti said.
Life was very different two years ago.
Mr Fischer lost his hospitality job as the pandemic hit and ended up leaving Melbourne to chase farm work, living in his van.
He said despite living apart during that time, their relationship grew stronger.
"I saw I can rely on her," he said.
While they're optimistic about the future, they both deeply feel the toll of Melbourne's lockdowns.
"I think I lost two years, that's a very critical time and I think that's what many young people feel," Mr Fischer said.
New data suggests young people suffered disproportionately during the first year of the pandemic — not just in Victoria, but across Australia.
Younger people worse off in pandemic, but showed 'resilience and optimism'
The way the lives of Australians changed in the first year of the pandemic has been laid bare in the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.
"It really does highlight what a year of massive upheaval 2020 was," the report's lead author Roger Wilkins said.
Nearly half of the 17,500 people surveyed said the pandemic made their lives worse.
While they didn't self-report drinking or smoking more, spending patterns showed an 8 per cent increase in the money spent on booze and a 15.6 per cent rise in tobacco spending.
The survey found younger Australians in particular were found to be worse off, being more likely to have lost their job and more likely to have faced a decline in their mental health.
"We heard a lot of talk about how the pandemic was disproportionately placing older people at risk in terms of their health," said Professor Wilkins, a University of Melbourne economist.
"We probably didn't give as much attention as we should have to the disproportionate adverse effects being felt by young people."
Despite that, young people were the least likely to actually say their lives were much worse during the pandemic.
"This cohort has more resilience and optimism than they are sometimes given credit for," Melbourne University senior research fellow Dr Ferdi Botha said the results suggested.
Survey captures snapshot of Melbourne lockdown
The HILDA study has been looking at the lives of Australians split across 9,500 households since 2001.
It's the only study of its kind and run by Melbourne University with Federal Government funding.
"There was definitely a diversity of experiences of the pandemic," Professor Wilkins said.
"Things we saw were record levels of job loss… rises in people with diagnosed depression and anxiety, broader deterioration in mental health."
The survey was done in the second half of 2020 while Melburnians were enduring the 111-day lockdown.
"Things were certainly more acutely felt in Melbourne than elsewhere in the country," Professor Wilkins said.
Around that time an 8pm-5am curfew had been imposed in Melbourne, there were only three reasons for leaving home.
Groups of more than two adults in public were outlawed and there were steep fines for people caught more than 5 kilometres from home without a valid excuse.
The survey found in Victoria people living in houses fared better than those living in other types of homes, including flats, nursing homes and caravan parks.
"This is consistent with confinement to one's home being less of an imposition if one has a larger, more private and/or otherwise better home," the HILDA report stated.
Improved relationships a bright spot in often gloomy data
Professor Wilkins said the survey painted a picture of just how much of a difference was made by government intervention and income support in 2020.
"These really created a great deal of economic security for many people, particularly those who are traditionally more disadvantaged or have lower incomes," he said.
"We also saw greater financial security than we'd ever seen in the history of the HILDA study.
"So it really was a year of of not entirely negatives."
For Ms Sciurti, from Italy, and Mr Fischer, from Germany, the government support provided little direct comfort — neither could qualify for assistance.
Among the bright spots identified in the survey was from a look at the strength of people's relationships.
As people were forced to shed social engagements, drop commutes while working from home and slow down, many couples said they were doing better.
"You would not have thought that during the 111-day lockdown that Melbourne went through … people were actually reporting on average, that their relationship with their partner had improved," Professor Wilkins said.
Nearly one in five couples around the country reported improvements in their relationship as a result of the pandemic.
Three quarters said their relationship had stayed the same and just a handful said their relationship had got worse.
"A lot of the tension points in relationships were removed by lockdowns," Professor Wilkins said.
"Who's going to pick up the kids, juggling home and work life, all those things became a lot easier during lockdowns so people's relationships correspondingly improved."
Mr Fischer and Ms Sciurti agree that the first pandemic year further cemented their relationship, bonding them together.
They had been together just one year before the virus arrived.
"A lot of relationships didn't survive and ours did," Ms Sciurti said.
