Category — The Block

Guest post Annajjj has been on fire this week with the recaps thanks again:

For some reason Home and Away runs for an hour tonight so we get to see all of The Block before switching to House Rules (except for those of us who choose to stick around to watch Shelly Croft presenting Unlocked: Everything. We. Have. Already. Seen. This. Week. Presented. In. A. Really. Annoying. Way.)

The Block has moved from Steamroom-gate to Fluffyroller-gate and it’s no less tedious. Quick Block recap:

Preview of Trixie shrieking at a twin. Note: This is not the last time we will see this.

Foreman Keith reckons young Jarrod’s wall is rough as guts and he’d know. Keith is good for controversy but he’s clearly spoiling for a fight and also confident none of the Blockheads will dare challenge him. Keith is an OHS officer/security guard/crossing patrol rolled into one self-important tosser.

Preview of Trixie shrieking at a twin.

Level 1 and a twin (they’ve stopped using little captions for these girls so I have no idea which one) wants the option of sitting down in the steam room. That’s a good idea, better make sure Level 5 doesn’t steal it.

Back to Level 4 and Jarrod has brought in a professional to undermine Keith. Keith turns incandescent with rage and spontaneously self-combusts and we never have to see him again.

Fluffyroller-gate starts with the twin realising Trixie has given her the crappier of the two purchased rollers. She storms upstairs to confront her. Are we finally getting……nope.

Preview of Trixie shrieking at a twin.

Back from the break and surely now we get to see the actual……Ctrl V: Preview of Trixie shrieking at a twin.

I’m going out on a limb here and predicting The Block Unlocked will contain at least one Preview of Trixie shrieking at a twin.

After the next break we get the actual altercation which includes the insane Flipper laughing that Trixie is (in)famous for. And we end with a promise to return to Steamroom-gate. Seriously? Did we get to see any actual reno this episode? No. No we did not.

Over to 7 now where we’re warned that teams are sliding out of control and the producers have missed a golden opportunity by not having Kenny Loggin’s Danger Zone as the theme music.

Michelle starts us off with a classy ‘up ya bum’ hurled at hubby Kel and then we are reminded that Seamy are camping in the backyard. Despite the Tasmanian’s vigorously defending their State on Facebook this place looks bloody cold. Seamy are determined not to come last and other than Sean briefly getting his foot trapped in a doorway they seem to be under control this morning.

Jemma and Barry Jnr don’t like bright annoying colours in their own home but have no qualms about installing a retina burning orange splashback in Jane’s laundry.

Nick has a bit of an issue with Barry. His voice is… his voice is just a projectile annoying….voice he tells Kel who tells him he’s ok really. Kel is having such a good day. He loves Sean, loves Amy, loves Barry Jnr, loves everyone. He’s a happy chappy.

A few people are still struggling with the Danish design concept. Chris thinks it is a Mediterranean/Scandinavian thing. Yep somewhere nowhere near there.

Producers have a quick word with Jane and Plinth. Look no one’s really getting the Danish/family friendly/edgy/art deco/eco thing. Can you give us a bit of clarity? Seems it’s a bleached out concept, pretty easy really. Not mainstream, more like polished bohemian but not too arty, we don’t like macramé and not too schmick or all the wittiness will be lost.

Jemma has found an art deco door. Well the clever saleswoman says it’s sort of art deco so you know – SOLD.  The good thing about having four different style rules is you can pretty much buy anything and say it fits the criterion. To prove this Leighton and Reese have bought a bamboo bench top, Leighton having reversed his earlier position on bamboo, and they tell us this is going to look very Danish. Michelle comes across an art deco mirror and the boys are installing a…wait for it….Danish art deco ceiling rose. Retailers in Tasmania are having a field day with this lot.

Kel changes the bookshelf design. Michelle comes back to inspect Kel’s work and we all hold our collective breath for the verdict……she loves it. Massive sigh of relief.

Budgets are blowing out so Jemma and Barry Jnr go to return their laundry door and get a cheaper one but the store refuses to take it back. Later Barry does a Keith and gets the store to agree to refund the price of the door even though it has been damaged.

McCrave-Burger is advising Seamy on the little girl’s room. She says 9 turns to 10, 12 and 14 pretty quickly because they skip odd numbers in Tasmania.

Leighton tells Reese the lounge she chose, ordered and is very happy with, is suddenly wrong. Reese gets stressed out because that’s just what she does according to Leighton. Nothing to do with you then.

New morning and unlike yesterday, Kel’s day is turning very bad. First he discovers the doors in his hallway are different heights due to the unevenness of the house and who could have predicted that, then he gets (politely) shut down by his mate Sean when he gets a bit blustery and then he gets smacked with this gem:  “Remember when we had to sell your motorbike to pay the bills?”  Is Michelle conspiring to make Kel cry? Finally he goes to hang the short supply wallpaper and tears his first sheet.

Kel is now broken.

Jemma delights in teasing Nick who is, let’s face it, a pretty easy target. She threatens to go mad with the orange paint when they do his house. Nick has other problems too. He locks the front so he can finish his entrance floor and people are trying to purposely annoy him by continuously knocking on the door. A sign might have averted that you know.

Leighton baffles with waffle. And annoys everyone by farting all over them.

Amy is doing a Jackson Pollock on an old ladder, as she obviously hasn’t read the online comments about Matt and Kim’s panic room, and thinks this will fit the ‘edgy’ brief.

Time is running out and the teams are getting frazzled and start yelling at each other. The pressure is on and as usual no one thinks they will be finished in time. We get a preview of Jane and Plinth discussing the family room and it looks like they won’t all fit in there. Is it wrong that I’m now looking forward to a Leighton smack down? House reveals next week.

Kim and Matt are so incompetent they should be on House Rules with Jane and Plino from Tasmania. Earlier this week we had the bodgy insulation job and tonight it looked like the ghost of Pro Hart was haunting their guest bed room. Sure you can be a big fan of Jackson Pollock but splattering paint over a wall, carpet and a bed spread just looked like technicolour vomit. The only positive thing about it was it made Neale Whittaker speechless for 0.5 seconds. Expect it not to be there auction day. Matt was not happy when he heard the reviews from the judges. How judge Darren Palmer gave it a seven out of ten the same as he gave Madi and Jarrod’s and Lysandra and Alissa’s was a mystery. Maybe he had an acid flashback just looking at it and that was why he was so generous with his scores.  Shaynna Blaze and Neale scored it what it was worth a four out of ten each.

As Shaynna Blaze said “I would never buy a house  with only half of it carpeted”. Yep half concrete flooring and half carpet. Though it turns out Shaynna would buy a house with an ensuite with no door. Also one of the judges muttered they had cut half their market out by doing their room like this. I would have thought 99% of people would have been turned off by it.

Matt and Kim scored 15 for their room and it was the lowest of the five. Thankfully this series they have gotten rid of the chumps award but really they just about deserved to wear a dunces hat.

This was the contestants first room and sure it was only a guest room and bathroom but for apartments that are meant to be high end there was little that was deluxe about the bedrooms. All the bathrooms were fine but the bedrooms were all pretty ordinary and Bec and George probably deserved the win even though they have been helped by five hundred of their cousins.

Trixie was upset that Johnno and her missed out by half a point. The judges loved their painted wooden tiles. Neal had never seen anything like it done before and making the door higher was a clever touch.  They fell down on not having a door on their en-suite. Seriously have they learnt nothing from previous seasons on The Block. 

Shaynna revealed she did not have one on her en-suite so did not have a problem with it. However I am on Team Darren and Neale on this one and agree with Darren who said you need one for visual and acoustic privacy.

Madi and Jarrod’s room had an industrial feel which apparently is on the way out. Neale did not think it feels fresh and thought by auction time it might be dated. However they did liked the bathroom.

The judges really liked Bec and George’s styling as they kept it simple. They were not as enthused about the bathroom as Neale thought the sink was too hard and too angular but he did like the tiles.

There was a lot going on in Alisa and Lysandra’s. The judges did like the lights, but hated the eleven cushions. Apparently any more than five is over kill. See reality TV is educational.  However they did like their bathroom.    

The winner was Bec and George with 22 points beating out Trixie and Johnno by half a point.

However unfortunately for them their winning room won’t be remembered as most will remember Matt and Kim’s which quite possibly be the worst room ever renovated on The Block! 

What did you think of the rooms?

The Block on NINE week nights at 7.00pm.

Photo from The Block Official Website

The Block looks like they are ahead in the battle of the reno shows with ratings showing they had 1.3 million viewers compared to 803,000 for House Rules. At this stage both are showing they are going to be good series however will people watch two renovation shows. However once The Voice is not on tonight SEVEN should see more people watching.

Last night it was judgement day for the boutique hotel room challenge and it would decide who would get the Penthouse to renovated which theoretically should get the bigger profit.

Trixie and Johnno’s room was thought to be the best and they got the Penthouse. They probably did have the best room out of the five particularly with their green ceiling in the bathroom.

Lysandra and Alisa were relegated to the first floor as their room was deemed the worst. Not helped by the fact their bathroom was not finished through no fault of their own as their tiler walked off the job. They don’t have the advantage of having family to call on like Bec and George seemed to be doing. Nor do they have a tradie in their team like all the others. So the judges should have cut them a bit of slack.

I thought the SA policewomen’s bedroom did scream luxe and was probably the best design wise.

Unlike hipster WA team Kim and Jarrod, whose room was like something out of a low rent B&B. Bec and George’s rooms were not great either it was all black like something you would see in a fetish brothel not a boutique hotel.

Here’s a prediction once the fighting starts the washing and cooking for the other teams by Bec’s mum will cease.

What did you think of the rooms? Who do you think should have got the Penthouse? And is it unfair that Bec and George can bring in family and friends to help?

The Block on at 7pm weeknights on NINE.

House Rules looks like it could be in trouble when my partner who hates The Block decided he wanted to watch the latest Sky Rise series. As we know a family who watches reality together stays together.

Well not in this little black ducks case we spent over half episode arguing about the stucco ceilings in the old motel.  To be fair my hackles were up when he asked what suburb The Block was in and I could not answer and he said “Shouldn’t you know these things?”. Fair point. For the record The Block – Sky High is in South Melbourne.

So if there are factual errors in the recap apologies.

For the record the was arguing about the asbestos in the ceilings, and also about how the ceiling were a pain in the arse to paint and I doubted it could occur in the 48 hour challenge.

So chances are we will be eagerly awaiting tonight’s episode to see what they actually do with the ceilings. You would have to presume if there is asbestos in the building that they will remove it.

At one stage last night it looked like The Block would be taking a macabre turn where it was staged to appear all the contestants were checking into a motel but a pretty rundown at that. Maybe they thought this was the result of NINE’s recent budget woes.

It must have felt like they were staying in Overlook Hotel from The Shining and it could have turned into a horror reality TV show with the contestants being told they were not on The Block but they just had to make it out alive. A bit like the 1997 sci-fi horror movie The Cube. (see trailer here)

The voice over told us married couple Bec and George were the first to arrive but in reception waiting were another team.

After they had all had a creepy night wondering if they were getting bed bugs they were rewarded with seeing Scott Cam on the roof of the building. Clearly the relief to see another human was great as Trixie gushed “He is such a handsome man”. 

The contestants are:

• Bec and George  from Vic;
• Madi and Jarrod from NSW;
• Alisa and Lysandra from SA;
• Matt and Kim from WA; and 
• Trixie and Johnno from Qld.

Scott just gave them their first challenge. They would be given $10,000 to renovate a bathroom and bedroom. The team that wins will get the penthouse to renovate.

In summary this is what occurred:

• George had a small anxiety attack when he took down a bit of a wall and it revealed water pipes, and Bec calculated the wrong amount of tiles that they required;
• Lysandra and Alisa ignored Scott Cam of course after this they instantly became my favourite team;
• Matt and Kim showed yet again that WA is the home of the hipster but their navigational skills did not have a lot going for them;
• Trixie also had navigational issues as her sat nav was not taking her to the correct location, maybe the Tom Tom was protesting about the overt product placement of having Carpet Court plugged into it. 
• Bec and George brought in the whole of their extended family to help with the labour. Which in my mind was unfair when everyone else was struggling to find tradies at short notice;
• Madi managed to get the vanity ahead of Bec and George but it looks like she is the first person to have the ambo called;
• Though Trixie looked like she was the first to be in tears but this could have been residual disappointment that she did not get to spend a night in Crown Casino Hotel. 

The Block – Sky High on NINE at 7.00pm.

What did you think of the first episode.

POST UPDATED:

First we had The Block and The Renovators going head-to-head, then The Biggest Loser and Excess Baggage, and this year new renovation show on SEVEN House Rules will be duking it out with the new series of The Block.

Channel NINE is coming out of the gates first and will premiere The Block on Sunday May 12 at 6.30pm and then on each weeknight at 7pm. House Rules is starting Tuesday 14 May at 7.30pm.

Historically we have seen when a new reality TV show of the same genre has gone head to head with an established one they have lost. This was seen when The Biggest Loser knocked Excess Baggage out of the ball park and when The Renovators could not get a foothold with The Block viewers.

However there were other factors why people did not watch Excess Baggage and The Renovators  and SEVEN have shown they know how to make great reality TV. The premise of House Rules is each week one of the couples houses is totally renovated so viewers are going to get the instant gratification of a fast transformation.

Though The Block is back in Melbourne and in a former hotel so totally different from what it has done previously and I must confess enthused about this renovations then some of the previous seasons.

Also they are taking a leaf out of SEVEN’s book and have teams from five different states. Yet again Tassie miss out.

They are:

• Matt (32) and Kim (31) from Perth, WA – engaged for one year
• Alisa (28) and Lysandra (28) from Adelaide, SA – identical twins
• Trixie (37) and Johnno (40) from Brisbane, QLD – parents of three
• Bec (26) and George (28) from Melbourne, VIC – married three years
• Madi (24) and Jarrod (24) from Sydney, NSW – married two years

Contestants will be required to “demo and reno” more than 80 rooms including a record-breaking 30 bathroom reveals. Each floor of the hotel will be transformed into 220-square-metre luxury apartments complete with three bedrooms and a sumptuous roof terrace with 360-degree views of Melbourne.

It looks like again judge John McGrath is not going to take a major role with the judges announced as Neale Whitaker, Shaynna Blaze, Darren Palmer and foreman Keith Schleiger is back.

The Block starts Sunday May 12 at 6.30pm.