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The Block judges were not impressed. Picture: Channel 9
Sometimes nice guys do finish first. Renovation novices Mat and Robby emerged victorious in bathroom week, impressing themselves and all three judges with their handiwork.
“This is the Goldilocks room! It is everything we have seen in other rooms, working extremely well together,” judge Darren Palmer said as he, Shaynna Blaze and Marty Fox took in the latte-coloured walls and impeccably finished tiling work.
“For a week one room, this is some of the best work I have seen,” Marty added approvingly.
It wasn’t just the caramel colour palette and smooth finishes which scored the South Aussie hairdressers the win. They were also the lone team to have the all-important horizontal towel rails and a vanity that had been installed at the right height.
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Shaynna finds the first of many too high vanities in Han and Can’s room.
The boys’ neighbours Alicia and Sonny, like everyone else, fell short with their too-tall vanity and Shaynna bugbear, vertical towel rails. But they did receive glowing praise for their chocolate-hued bathroom.
Darren said he was “besotted” with what they had done.
Robby and Mat’s winning bathroom. Darren wanted to kiss it and Shaynna was just happy with horizontal towel rails.
“This gave me a kiss on the mouth as soon as I walked through the door,” he said.
Marty played a little harder to get. But admitted that the longer he stayed in the room (and took in little finishing touches like the timber stool), the more he liked it.
Sonny and Alicia may have finished second for their reno, but their budgeting came out trumps, netting them $10,000. The Queenslanders spent almost $10,000 less than victors Mat and Robby.
Sonny and Alicia spent much less than the boys but nearly pipped them.
Can and Tan also fared well with the penny-pinching. But Han’s refusal to accept they had bitten off more than they could chew with the elaborate floor to ceiling tile design, meant they failed to finish.
On Saturday, Foreman Dan had tried to gently suggest the girls scale back their ambitious tiling plan fearing (rightly, it turned out) that they were headed for disaster. But “Handy Han” wasn’t having a bar of it. She seemed to be the only person on site who couldn’t see they were doomed. At one stage, she was even talking about going over to help neighbours affected by glue-gate after she finished tiling.
Of course, they never finished. But Han never gave up hope they would until after host Scotty Cam called “Tools down!”
Dan is dismayed at how much tiling Han and Can still have to do with one tiler on the tools.
Prepared to cop criticism for being unfinished, Han couldn’t stomach it when the judges pointed out the flaws with their design. Literally. Leaving the judging room in tears, Han locked herself in the caravan bathroom to vomit.
It wasn’t as though the judges had said anything that harsh. Much of the criticism revolved around vanity height (again).
But Marty hated the brass fittings on the shower screens. And also urged them to rethink the curved doorway, arguing it was a waste of money and didn’t look right in a flat-roofed property.
Darren felt they needed to get moodier (design wise), arguing: “I don’t think this is what the Daylesford market is going to respond to, aesthetically speaking.”
Han and Can’s bathroom with unfinished tiling and unnecessary shower screen.
Shaynna felt the girls’ problems could all be traced back to missing out on a gabled roof property on day one.
She believed they needed to “fall in love with the exterior” of House Two.
“Find the benefits of that exterior and use it to your advantage,” she urged.
Having decreed that Han and Can’s floor-to-ceiling tiles were unnecessary in a cold climate, citing Britt and Taz’s vinyl wallpaper as a great example of a cheaper way to make a bathroom feel finished in far less time.
“It’s a good bathroom, but it’s not great. And from a marketing perspective, where’s the Daylesford in it,” Marty queried.
The judges loved the colours in Emma and Ben’s finished bathroom.
They saw plenty of Daylesford in Emma and Ben’s green-themed room.
Shaynna was impressed by the way the Mornington couple had mirrored the surrounding area’s colours and textures in their bathroom. But their finishing (and lack of horizontal towel rails) let them down.
Nonetheless Darren said: “this couple have lots of experience and clearly they know how to deliver.”
As Mat would say: ‘Game on molls!”
FINAL SCORES
Robby and Mat: 26.5
Sonny and Alicia: 25.5
Emma and Ben: 24
Britt and Taz: 24
Can and Han: 19.5
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