Three weeks in, and Scott Cam finally showed the street what they’re actually playing for. A Plungie Arena pool, empty for now but promised to fill up with cash and prizes every week, landed at HQ with an opening deposit of $50,000, on top of the $100,000-plus-profit already on the table for whoever wins main bedroom and walk-in robe week. It was the kind of number that makes five very tired teams remember why they signed up, right before one of them missed their shot at history entirely.
| Rank | Team | Score | Judges’ Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| ð¥ 1st | Lisa and Rosco | 27 | “This is finished. If you have a look around like the execution here, it’s almost perfection.” |
| ð¥ 2nd (tie) | Adam and Jolene | 25 | “The foundations of their palette and their tone is bang-on.” |
| ð¥ 2nd (tie) | Chantel and Wyatt | 25 | “It’s minimalist, but it’s architectural. It’s not overdone.” |
| 4th | Rick and Tayla | 22 | “With everything being very matchy, it’s not memorable.” |
| 5th | Courtney and Sev | 17 | “We’re in a coffin. A really high-end coffin, with terrible tiling and a ceiling that’s not straight.” |
Key Moments This Episode
- RIDICULOUS PURCHASEScott unveils the season’s new “Prize Pool”: a $30,000 Plungie Arena pool at HQ, kicked off with a literal $50,000 in cash, on top of the $100,000-plus-profit grand prize.
- ARGUMENTAdam and Jolene’s phone-in-the-car mix-up turns into a live-to-air marital spat: “That’s not my problem. That’s a you problem.”
- DISASTERCourtney and Sev’s DIY marble mosaic tiling is torn apart on camera: “It looks like it’s on the piss.”
- DRAMACourtney and Sev fail to finish their room, missing out on the hat-trick that would have made Block history.
- RIDICULOUS PURCHASEDespite finishing last on score, Courtney and Sev still take home the CommBank Better Budgeting Award, landing within $562 of their own estimate.
- DRAMALisa and Rosco go from an unfinished bathroom and no room at all last week to their first win of the season.
- ARGUMENTJudges call out Rick and Tayla for pouring money into floor-to-ceiling Venetian plaster directly under a skylight nobody will ever really see it from.
Lisa and Rosco: From No Bathroom to First Win
A week after failing to deliver a bathroom at all, Lisa and Rosco produced the room every other team got measured against. Working from the walk-in robe design they inherited from Courtney and Sev, they built out a minimalist, calming main bedroom with travertine downlights, an Oz Doors feature entry and a locked-down piece of local artwork Lisa refused to share. Shaynna Blaze called it flatly finished, “almost perfection,” and the only note across all three judges was a missing blockout blind. “They’ve got these touch points that add luxury,” Marty Fox said, “and they’ve done it in a really controlled palette.” Twenty-seven points and their first win of the season, straight after the worst week of it.
Adam and Jolene: A Bang-On Palette, A Slightly Rough Morning
Adam and Jolene’s main bedroom leaned on a rammed-earth-look feature wall called Archi Pietra, paired with Freedom wardrobe cabinetry and a matte dekton stone bench in the walk-in robe. The judges loved the direction: “the foundations of their palette and their tone is bang-on,” from Marty, and genuine excitement from Darren about seeing a defined style this early in the season. The only real knock was over-styling, two oversized chairs squeezed into the room and a buffet the judges thought should have been drawers instead. Off-camera, the morning wasn’t as smooth: Adam left his phone in the car, called Jolene mid-errand to ask when she’d be back, and got a very clipped answer. “That’s not my problem,” she told him. “That’s a you problem.” Twenty-five points, tied for second.
Chantel and Wyatt: Great Bones, Zero Time For Styling
Chasing the judges’ “quiet luxury” brief, Chantel and Wyatt built a light, bright, white main bedroom around a curved arch bedhead and a striking new stone called Eclos, with genuinely praised paintwork throughout. The problem was time: with painting eating the whole week, styling never happened. “Light, bright and white was the brief,” Darren said. “This is very light, white and bright. And plain.” Marty was blunter, comparing the room’s traditional-in-a-contemporary-house mismatch to “putting tomato sauce on sushi,” and calling the finished space “a bit boring, to be honest.” Judges suggested swapping the carpet for something with texture and the handles for leather. Twenty-five points, tied for second alongside Adam and Jolene.
Rick and Tayla: Finally Finished, Just Not Memorable
After two incomplete rooms in a row, Rick and Tayla delivered their first fully finished space of the season: floor-to-ceiling Venetian plaster, the herringbone floor Tayla kept despite her real estate agent’s warning (vindicated on the night, with Shaynna calling it simply “beautiful”), a built-in fireplace and two Michael Parker paintings running 3.3 metres each. But the finishing touches let it down. A curtain was stapled directly to the wall, a second window’s blind was never ordered, and the bedside lamps and tables didn’t match, compounded by a double pendant hanging over near-identical lamps. Judges also queried the cost of all that Venetian plaster directly beneath a skylight nobody would ever really notice it from. “With everything being very matchy,” Shaynna said, “it’s not memorable.” Twenty-two points, fourth place, but their first complete room banked.
Courtney and Sev: The Hat-Trick That Wasn’t
After two wins in a row and a real shot at Block history, Courtney and Sev’s week fell apart exactly where Wednesday’s episode said it would. The fireplace framework had to be torn out and rebuilt, Sev’s DIY marble mosaic tiling never recovered, and the room went to judging unfinished. The verdict was brutal. “The tiling on this, I mean, it looks like it’s on the piss,” Darren said, before Shaynna picked apart an uneven ceiling plaster line and called the finished space cold and grey. “We’re in a coffin,” she said. “A really high-end coffin, with terrible tiling and a ceiling that’s not straight.” Marty called it “a massive fall from grace” and a “redo room.” The one bright spot: Courtney and Sev still walked away with the CommBank Better Budgeting Award, finishing within $562 of their own estimate. Seventeen points, last place, and the hat-trick gone.
Three weeks in and the ladder has properly scrambled: last week’s cellar-dwellers are this week’s winners, and last week’s back-to-back champions just had their worst night of the season. Main ensuite week is up next, and with a Plungie pool and $50,000 cash already sitting at HQ, nobody’s coasting into it. We’ll see you back here once the taps are running.
