The contestants have remodelled a flooded home; rejuvenated a broken school, perked up a dampened riverbank and brought back an eliminated contestant! What the hell could they possibly do tonight?
We are reminded of the week thus far before the contestants rock up to a community club in Darra, and their final Queensland challenge.
The judges and Brisbane welcome them and tell them, as usual, what happened to the community in the floods, especially in terms of the community hall.
Peter tells them that their challenge will be to renovate the entire community hall in a matter of hours.
Robyn tells them that they will be working in two teams; one working inside, and one outside.
She tells them that the community will decide which team wins. They will do this over the barbecue, so doesn’t that automatically suggest favouritism to Team Outside?
Brendan tells them that the judges will decide the star performer; who will win a working bee for their house.
He then tells them that the entire losing team will go into elimination tomorrow. I didn’t know there was one this week!
They split into teams and it seems like it is Natalia, August, Nathan, Christie, Mel and Keenan against Jason, Kathy, Peter, Jarrad, Michael and Luke.
The black team will do the outside with gold doing the inside. Brendan tosses a coin which the second team wins, so Peter decides to do the inside, leaving the other team to do the outside.
They have seven hours- five hours today and two hours tomorrow. They will also get helpers as labourers who turn out to be all those ugly Bunning’s employees from those ads!
The teams will have a few minutes before work start to brief with the community leaders and with that, they slip into their respective colours.
They then meet the community leaders and get a few ideas on what to do in their areas. With that, work starts…now!
After the break, they begin their work with the gold team beginning on their preparation. Peter and Kathy discuss storage options while I think Luke is taking charge today.
Outside and the black team are going to split the area into two sections; a paved area and a grass area.
Christie and Natalia discuss colours and Christie scolds Natalia for suggesting colours based on the coolness of the name. They go for ‘Storm Cloud’ which is convenient as the clouds roll over above them.
The judges discuss the progress of the teams already and Baz points out what each team is doing.
After that, Baz goes in and interviews Michael before he goes to prep the roofs. Baz doesn’t know why sanding of the floors isn’t being started now while the walls are being prepped for their first coat.
Michael takes his advice and a Bunning’s specialist begins to sand the floors.
Outside, Brendan is interviewing the leaders to find out what it felt like to live through the floods. They love to see the renovators working on the centre.
Natalia has taken some pavers which look really good, and plants them as stepping stones outside. Baz and Robyn come over and tell her how much work the group has in front of them. Natalia knows that she and the renovators aren’t average tradies; they will get the job done. Good to hear.
August meanwhile is calling people to replace the sign on the community hall but when he tells them they need it within 6 hours; they seem to hang up the phone!
Kathy and Peter rush to Bunning’s for blinds, speakers, mirrors and kids toys among other things which end up costing them $2,900! They cut the price down to just under $2,700 by taking a few things out while back at the community building, painting is well underway.
August is happy to contribute to this as around his area, community halls are rare.
Peter is back with a heap of wood that Luke and he are cutting up sections for their shelves but judge Peter is concerned it will not fit through the door. Luke is sure it will.
Meanwhile, Jason is annoyed that Natalia’s spray cleaner water is coming through the window and splashing on his sanded floors inside. After a bit of friendly kerfuffle, the outside team realise they have to hurry as the thunder rolls.
The painting needs to be done before the rain comes, but with so much to do, it looks like an impossible task. Mel thinks that for the first time in the competition, she is worried they won’t make it! Yeah, my head just exploded with confusion!
Two hours remain in the day and there is so much to do! Robyn is concerned by the rapidly approaching rain. Baz notices that the gutters are not up which could cause the rain to sheet down on Keenan’s paved area which is not complete, and destroy the foundations.
Keenan just cannot lay tiles fast enough. Meanwhile, inside, Jason is annoyed that there are paint droplets on the ground which causes him to stop sand blasting. He finds that sanding and painting in the same day is not a good idea.
Keenan is now in a more positive frame of mind as he nears the completion of the paving. When he finishes, they celebrate before moving on.
Painting is still going, August’s sign is done and Natalia looks like she is doing the gutters; it seems work is well underway.
As It turns out, Natalia does not like the Storm Cloud colour as it actually looks like Storm Clouds! What?!
August is annoyed that the girls want to change the colour and wonders if the girls decided on the colour of the paint based on its name…! I mean, firstly, why the hell would you choose the colour, ‘Storm Clouds’ when you’re re-painting a flood damaged hall? Merry Christmas, Darra!
August is quite annoyed at Natalia and Natalia just goes with keeping the colour saying it will be August’s fault if Darra doesn’t like the colour. August proclaims that he is a bitch!
Luke gets Michael’s help to finish his and Peter’s shelves. They need to be in the hall when the storm hits so Baz makes sure the progress of the prep inside is running along smoothly.
Luke gets Peter to move inside and help get the most work out of the way as possible.
Brendan however calls time on the contestants, but when they gather outside, Brendan tells them that they will have an extra 30 minute grace because it is such a meaningful challenge. The amount of time contestants say they could have done with ‘an extra 10 minutes’; well, this should crunch those complainers.
In that half an hour, they get the inside pretty much finished and the outside even looks really good.
We end scene looking at the contestants working into the night before we move onto day two. It is 7AM and it is raining! This means that people working outside cannot come inside, except for Luke and Peter who need to move their shelves in.
When they try to shove it through the door, it doesn’t fit! Oh god!
They just laugh at the fact that Luke is now looking like a twit. They then take the shelves through the back door and after a bit of barge, they get it in!
Outside and the black team are now planting plants. Christie struggles to get her rain coat on while Natalia marvels over a frog! Yep, it’s a hard day on The Renovators!
The judges come inside to inspect the progress and Pete and Baz are a bit concerned by the low ceiling and even lower light which, as the judges joke, the tall folk of Darra could hit their head on. The judges discuss the rainy conditions and Baz worries that the fact the contestants weren’t able to paint the gable could lose it for them.
With the final hour counting down, the furniture comes in and the final touches to the room are placed in.
Peter pulls off a blind and gets paint on it, but blames whoever installed it on his mistake. Anyway, he is able to get the paint off.
Outside, and as the Kangaroo’s watch on, the black team finish the decking and finishing touches.
5 minutes are left, but they fly by and soon enough, time is up!
The contestants just celebrate, and in the background, the locals are waiting under some erected marquees.
Christie thinks the black team have killed it while the gold team are just happy to have made a long standing contribution to Darra.
After the break, we are reminded of the challenge, and get a look in at some before and after shots. For the outside, it looks fantastic despite the rainy setting. It just looks like a white picket American home with an Aussie Tropical Twist.
Inside just looks fabulous.
But, it isn’t up to me because last time I checked; I’m not a Darra resident.
The judges clap the contestant’s effort before Brendan and Baz compliment them for their job; saying they exhausted the judges and that they are proud of them.
With that, the contestants leave as the public role in. After Brendan introduces them all to the new townhouse, runs through the rules of voting, and gets them to inspect.
Again, it is just a matter of the public going in, sometimes giving feedback (some of the outdoor crew hoping the public drag mud through the inside), and seeing some votes being cast.
The most rewarding part of the scene is seeing all the happy faces.
After the break, the public go and hug the contestants as the judge’s stand in front of the contestants and Robyn debriefs on the challenge before verdict time (but not before tears from Natalia).
Peter tells them that 83 votes were cast with one team getting 30 and the other getting 53. So with that, the winning area is… the outside black team! After a few celebrations, Brendan tells the gold team, consisting of Michael, Luke, Jason, Jarrad, Peter and Kathy, that they will tomorrow face elimination. Brendan just tells them to reflect on the week that they have had instead of the elimination.
With that, we get some reflections from the contestants; and what a wonderful week it was.
The judges then reveal that the standout performer for today; from the black team, is… Keenan; most probably because of his leadership (which is complimented by Baz saying that Keenan has some of the best leadership he has ever seen and that Keenan is a real contender to take this thing out… before cheekily adding that taking it one step at a time, he has only won a working bee for his house) and his paving job.
With that, the Brisbane Week is over, but tomorrow is just another elimination Thursday!
Again, another brilliant episode bar all of the Bunning’s references which were nauseating! I loved the humour in the episode; notably at the end and the whole kerfuffle over the colour of the house; and there was also a lot of emotion, which has been endemic to this whole week.
I have really loved this Brisbane week, and have felt privileged that I have been here to blog it (one week later and I would have missed it!). Other than yesterday’s episode, it has just been such a joy to blog, and I just cannot wait for tomorrow to get back into routine. Ahh, it’s all a bit like going on holiday!
Courtney’s Verdict: 8.5/10
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