The most likeable and laid-back contestant pair earn foreman Dan’s wrath in this guest bedroom reveal episode.
Ricky and Haydn have failed to order enough paint to finish their room, which means trades are held up the next morning while they finish the job. They don’t want the wallpaper, electrics and carpet installed until their paint is done.
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But when Dan finds out the flooring sponsor’s carpet installer has been left hanging around for hours he’s ropeable.
“This has become a joke,” he says. “With the sponsors you just can’t hold them up. He’ll be coming back from lunch soon and the carpet is going straight in.”
He’s equally unimpressed when he sees the state of the boys’ plaster.
“The boys have paid for a job that’s way below standard,” he points out when he sees the rough-as-guts ceiling.
“Our chances of winning the room is zero to none,” a morose Ricky says, with the final straw the fact he’s put the latch for the door in the wrong spot so it won’t close.
Still, as judging takes place in an inexplicably smoke-filled shed, Scott Cam notes that there were no failures this week, with all of the rooms getting the tick of approval from the judges.
Jesse and Paige have spent $9331 of their $12,000 budget on a room the judges love.
With striped wallpaper, sage green wardrobes, traditional wall sconces and a colourful duck print, Shaynna Blaze finally gives a name to the couple’s style. It’s modern colonial, apparently.
They lose points for the mismatched metals in handles and for a lighting plan that doesn’t spotlight the wardrobes but they’re small quibbles.
Courtney and Grant have clawed back some cash after their bathroom blowout last week, spending $8317 on a room all the judges love.
With a pistachio-coloured arched niche containing two single beds, a built-in desk, wide striped wallpaper and three grouped pendant lights, judge Marty Fox loves the fact the room could easily be converted to an adults’ bedroom with a change to the bed and artwork.
They cop some mild criticism for placing a potentially toe-breaking doorstop in the middle of the carpet, and like Jesse and Paige, they haven’t installed any form of heating or cooling which also earns them a downgrade.
The judges are slightly more divided on Ricky and Haydn’s $8062 room, with Marty Fox describing the layout as claustrophobic. They’ve put in bunk beds, and a nook for a Playstation, which the judges all agree is set too high on the wall to be comfortable for kids.
They love the animals-of-the-world print on the wardrobe doors but again, there’s no heating or cooling.
“It’s a good room, it’s not a great room,” Marty Fox says.
“I don’t even think it’s a good room,” Shaynna disagrees.
The disagreements continue in Kylie and Brad’s $11,611 room. On the judge’s instructions Kylie has toned down her style, choosing to use black as highlights rather than the entire theme, but now she’s accused of not being herself.
“I don’t get the feeling Kylie loves this room,” Darren Palmer says.
“Kylie has so much personality with her green hair so bring your personality. This is a compromise,” Shaynna says.
The room has a vaguely art deco feel, which doesn’t make sense to the judges, though Shaynna appreciates the practical and beach house-friendly wooden floor, and they all agree the ceiling fan was an obviously necessarily inclusion that all the other teams missed.
“They all said pare it back and I did and now they said it’s boring,” Kylie reasonably points out.
And once again, it’s Mimi and Kristian who really have the judges’ attention.
Their $12,016 with offset wood panel, padded bedhead and mismatched wall sconce and pendant score them first place again.
“This isn’t saying beach, it’s saying boutique hotel,” Shaynna says.
“Boutique beach hotel,” Marty adds.
Their door doesn’t open properly, and they’ve shoved cheap white light switches right into their timber panelling, but still win, once again by half a point over an unlucky Courtney and Grant.
As the other teams gather to celebrate Kylie and Brad head to bed early.
“Our door shut perfectly,” Brad notes.
“They got scores like that and didn’t have perfect finishes,” she says. “Why try?”
FINAL SCORES
Jesse and Paige 27
Courtney and Grant 27.5
Ricky and Haydn 22
Kylie and Brad 22
Kristian and Mimi 28
MISSED AN EPISODE?
EP 6/7: ‘F***ing wasting time’: Block couple set to quit
EP 5: ‘This has never happened’: Block team caught in fraud scandal
EP 4: ‘Childish, boring’: Block judges come in blazing
EP 3: Block builder already breaking rules incurs foreman’s wrath
EP 2: ‘Who the f**k wants to sleep near their kids?’ — Block couple baffled
EP 1: ‘Not good at anything’: Bathroom fireworks kick off on The Block
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