The Block contestants have hit the sharp end of Family Bathroom Week, with Lisa and Rosco forced to rip up a disastrous tiled floor, Courtney and Sev desperately chasing lost time and Chantel and Wyatt emerging as the team to catch as a $250,000 E&S kitchen upgrade hangs in the balance.
There is plenty to get through during a bathroom renovation, but by Thursday morning the five teams are no longer operating on anything resembling an even playing field.
While some houses are already pushing ahead with tiling, others remain trapped in inspections, trade shortages and unfinished preparation.
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And with only days remaining before reveal, every lost hour is becoming increasingly expensive.
At House 2, Chantel and Wyatt have staged the week’s biggest comeback.
Despite missing Monday completely for what they described as an “RDO”, the pair become the first team to begin tiling on Thursday morning.
A significant part of that progress comes courtesy of the Cursio brothers, who arrived with the house and have helped the team recover the time lost earlier in the week.
Foreman Dan is impressed by the turnaround, while Scott Cam and Shelley Craft find a bathroom that is considerably further advanced than several of its rivals.
Chantel and Wyatt are working with a calm, minimal scheme featuring a floating timber vanity, sand-coloured bath and large-format beige tiles, alongside a pared-back powder room.
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The couple have also chosen to remove a bathroom door, one of several attempts across the site to deal with the property’s awkward floor plan.
With their bathroom moving rapidly, Wyatt is feeling confident enough to offer some advice to everyone else.
“The other teams just need to manage their time and trades better,” Wyatt says.
It is quite the assessment from a contestant who only last week did not know one end of a hammer from another.
But whatever his previous experience, the scoreboard on site is increasingly difficult to argue with: House 2 is moving while several of its competitors are struggling.
For Courtney and Sev in House 4, the situation could hardly be more different.
The pair have tackled the troublesome three-door entry by relocating the powder room entrance and incorporating a cavity slider, effectively reworking the hallway arrangement rather than accepting the existing configuration.
Their plans are ambitious.
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The bathroom includes a dramatic Velux skylight, floating vanity, timber cabinetry, shower niches, a glass screen and bath, while the powder room is intended to have a clean finish.
The problem is getting any of it completed.
By Thursday morning, Courtney and Sev have not even had their framing signed off.
Their frustration is compounded by the continuing fallout from a deal with Rosco, under which they believed builders would be supplied in return for handing over their waterproofer.
Those promised builders did not materialise as expected.
Eventually, Rosco sends his carpenter Lachie across to help get House 4 moving, but the relationship between the teams has already taken a hit.
Courtney makes her feelings clear.
“We’re up shit creek.
This will be the last time I make a deal with the devil,” Courtney says.
Rosco, meanwhile, admits his recollection of exactly what he agreed to is less than perfect.
“What happens is I get what I need and then I just blank out,” he says.
“I’m a dog in their eyes for sure, but what’s good is everything is recorded and I’ll found out, ‘Oh, I was a dog’.”
The pressure on House 4 only increases when Scott and Shelley arrive for their walkaround.
With only a day to go, Courtney and Sev still have not started tiling.
For Courtney, a commercial building project manager, there is more than prize money attached to the result.
“Our egos and professional pride is on the line,” Courtney admits.
Scott sees one possible way to claw back some time: a body corporate meeting to seek extended working hours for painting.
The suggestion immediately gives Courtney hope.
She gets Rick and Tayla on board, while Adam and Jolene are considerably less enthusiastic.
With a $250,000 prize at stake, Adam initially sees little reason to help rivals when House 1 believes it can finish without additional hours.
“You’ve got to be ruthless, there’s $250,000 at stake,” Adam says.
But the equation changes when Jolene leaves the site.
Despite Jolene believing the couple had agreed to vote against the proposal, Adam ultimately votes in favour.
The body corporate decision is unanimous, giving the teams extended painting hours and leaving Jolene unimpressed by the change of position.
Before all of that bathroom drama, however, the contestants are briefly dragged away from site for the season’s first challenge.
The teams head to Peninsula Hot Springs for a styling contest in which they have 30 minutes to transform bare glamping tents into luxury bedroom retreats.
Before the clock starts, Scott Cam offers a simple warning: “no breakages, no rough house”.
The orderly approach does not last long once the challenge begins.
When the styling is finished, it is Lisa and Rosco who come out on top.
Their natural styling earns them $10,000 cash, an overnight stay in the Peninsula Hot Springs eco-lodge and a trades “Snooze button” worth another $10,000, allowing their tradies to continue working while they take advantage of a sleep-in.
It is a welcome lift for House 3, but the celebration does not survive the return to the main renovation.
Back on site, Lisa and Rosco have only one tiler attempting to complete the enormous amount of work required in their bathroom.
The tiler remains confident he can handle the job.
Almost nobody else shares that confidence.
With only five working hours remaining, Rosco accepts his tiler’s assurance that the work can be completed rather than demanding additional labour.
Dan has already advised him to get more help.
As the clock continues to run, Rosco begins to recognise that he may have needed to take a harder line.
“I’m probably not forceful enough,” Rosco admits.
With an hour remaining, he tells Dan there will not be any tiles going onto the walls that day.
The problems are not limited to speed.
When Dan, Aidan and GMac inspect the work, their attention quickly turns to the quality of the floor.
The fall to the waste is too shallow, there are substantial gaps and the tile cuts do not line up.
Looking at the work from the window, Dan does not hide his reaction.
“This is bulls**t.
It’s a disaster,” Dan says.
The inspection confirms the nightmare scenario for House 3.
The floor does not pass.
The tiles have to come back up.
After pushing their building team to complete its work in time for the tiler, Lisa and Rosco are left facing the prospect of starting the floor again while other houses continue racing towards completion.
Dan believes the decision to have one person tackle the work has badly hurt the team’s chances.
“All because he’s tried to do it on his own and he’s roughed it.
How can you win a room when you’ve got quality like that?
I don’t think you can.”
For Lisa, the setback goes well beyond the lost labour and materials.
The challenge victory had delivered a badly needed morale boost, but the failed bathroom floor leaves her questioning the personal cost of the week.
“It’s devastating,” Lisa cries.
“And then you think about being away from your son and to have that feel like it’s a little bit for nothing this week is hard.”
The pair leave devastated, with their freshly laid floor now needing to be removed and their chances of taking the week’s major prize severely damaged.
Over at House 1, Adam and Jolene are also taking a distinctive approach to the family bathroom.
Their onsen-inspired design includes a bench seat, kit kat tiles, bathtub and shower, accompanied by a simple powder room.
They are determined to win, although Scott and Shelley have concerns about both the floor plan and how much money appears to be going into the space.
The most contentious decision is the removal of the toilet door.
Under the proposed arrangement, anyone heading into the bathroom would have to walk past the toilet.
Scott is not convinced.
“I’m a door on the toilet sort of bloke,” Scotty says.
Scott and Shelley prefer the approach taken by Lisa and Rosco, who instead remove the door leading to the hallway.
For House 5, the challenge is not a shortage of ambition.
Rick and Tayla are creating an earthy, heavily tiled bathroom with travertine features, heated towel rails, a marble-topped vanity and a powder room requiring still more tiling.
During the walkaround, Scott and Shelley like what the pair is attempting, but the amount of tiling required is an obvious concern.
Initially, Rick has considerable manpower behind him, with five tradies helping with the tiling.
That advantage does not last.
An insurance problem involving two of the tilers is uncovered and they are removed from the site.
The development leaves Tayla searching the other houses for qualified assistance.
She is unable to find another tiler, although she does find Stephen, a plasterer.
The trade setback comes as Dan is becoming increasingly concerned about the workload falling on Rick.
While Rick battles through the building work and mounting pressure to complete the bathroom, Dan questions how much practical help he is receiving from his teammate.
His assessment of the situation is pointed.
“House Five’s team consists of only one person.
I’ll let the audience decide who that is,” Dan says.
The pressure is particularly acute because House 5’s design depends on completing such a large amount of tiling, while Dan also has concerns about unprotected waterproofing.
By the closing stages of the episode, the contrast between the houses is becoming difficult to miss.
Chantel and Wyatt are calm, organised and significantly advanced after recovering from their lost Monday, with the Cursio brothers helping House 2 become the first to start tiling on Thursday morning.
Adam and Jolene remain committed to their ambitious onsen-inspired design, although their door decision and spending attract scrutiny.
Courtney and Sev are attempting one of the week’s biggest layout changes but remain badly behind after delays to framing and waterproofing.
Rick and Tayla have a mountain of tiles still to complete after losing two tilers over insurance issues.
But nobody finishes the episode in a deeper hole than Lisa and Rosco.
Within the space of a short period, House 3 goes from winning the season’s first challenge and collecting prizes worth $20,000, along with the eco-lodge stay, to discovering that its bathroom floor has failed inspection and must be torn up.
For a couple already concerned about lost time and relying on a single tiler, the failure leaves them with an enormous recovery job.
The looming deadline now promises a frantic final push, with the teams still facing tiling, painting and finishing work before the rooms can be presented.
Not every bathroom is expected to make it comfortably across the line, with the judges set to return for what is described as highs, lows and “total misses”.
And with a $250,000 E&S kitchen upgrade sitting at the centre of Family Bathroom Week, the difference between a completed room and a costly failure has rarely looked greater.
The Block continues Sunday night on Nine and 9Now
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