Rain, mud and a wheelbarrow count that reached the hundreds: day two of the final week was landscaping at its most glamorous. Somewhere in the middle of it, there was also a boom gate, a stolen paver investigation and a trivia night with a meat tray.
Key Moments Today
- RIDICULOUS PURCHASEAdam’s “Mount Eliza toll” boom gate costs $78 to build and earns $15: “Can I get a daily pass then?”
- ARGUMENTHouse Four’s 40 missing bluestone steppers turn up in the Cursios’ pile, followed by a count: “38. 38. Yeah, but I’ve got more over there.”
- DISASTERRain turns the front yards to mud, and Wyatt has had enough: “I do not care how it comes across. I am over it.”
- DRAMAJolene wants the side access shut. Adam does not: “We are definitely yin and yang.”
A $78 Boom Gate and a $15 Profit
The side access through House One is the only way Houses Two and Three can get soil and crushed rock to their front yards, and Adam has monetised it. The “Mount Eliza toll” was installed with an automatic boom gate, a cash register sound effect and a daily pass at ten dollars.
The takings were around $15 against a build cost of $78, and the gate was reportedly locked within about ten minutes. Meanwhile, Jolene’s patience was shorter than the toll queue.
“Close the (BLEEP) thing down.”
Jolene, on the side access
Blood Blisters: The Chery Getaway
Houses One and Four celebrated their joint win with a Chery getaway at Port Phillip Estate, complete with massage chairs, a hatted restaurant and $5,000 each. On the way, Adam played the girls a song he had written, “Blood Blisters”, Cheryoke style.
Both teams used dinner to patch things up, and the mood was light. As one voice put it, “we never thought it would turn into this House One versus House Four saga”, and the rivalry had kept both teams “on their feet”.
Troy, Tom and the Water Feature That Got Away
Courtney and Sev’s budget conversation with landscaper Troy continued. The shortfall was around $20,000, and Tom’s carpentry bill for the staircase and deck was about $10,500, with another $6,000 from the previous week still to come.
- Cuts on the table: the deck outside the downstairs room and the water feature.
- The plan: one feature tree of two to two and a half metres.
- Plot twist: a water feature the girls wanted was bought by someone else, so they locked in a two-metre sculpture with water pouring down the sides instead.
Not everyone was sold. One voice admitted feeling “a little deflated”, saying “we can’t compete with stone baths and saunas”.
Stan Sport Trivia Night: Meat Tray Included
Scott offered $10,000 from Stan Sport at a pub trivia night hosted with former Wallaby Morgan Turinui. The contestants’ sports knowledge was, to put it kindly, mixed: “We don’t even watch sport.”
Houses One and Three tied, forcing a shoot-off. The tie-breaker: who came second in the Premier League? House One answered Man City and took the $10,000, with House Three left with the memory of a meat tray.
Wheelbarrows, Cranes and Lisa
Rosco was in his element with a 250-tonne crane on site, the biggest yet on The Block, and an operator called Dylan he described as “a good bloke”. Lisa, who is pregnant, was on a wheelbarrow in the mud, to the concern of the Nine in Six crew. Rosco’s reply: “She’s not getting off that barrow today.”
What’s Next
Tomorrow brings Lisa versus the neighbours and a missing crane. As the promo puts it, Jolene reaches her limit over the access gate, and the neighbours may not finish at all: “The cogs have absolutely stopped in our backyard.”
