The khaki team and the navy blue team are by far the strongest teams in the competition, emotionally that is. But tonight, they are BOTH going to be torn apart in their most important challenge in the competition. From here on in; the scent of the finale is about to get strong.
We begin the episode at the now wonderfully dressed up sixties suburban house where Nathan and Natalia are getting ready for their head to head. Nathan, as the last original member of the khaki team knows only too well what it is like to lose a team member, so he is hoping he can put all that to good promise and win today.
Natalia is hosing her lawn to keep herself calm. She is crying as she thinks of the prospect of seeing her children.
At the navy blue fibro cottage, Jarrad and Michael have been a final two team for quite a while now; and today is the day one of them becomes a finalist. They aren’t so emotional by this event.
The judges (Brendan and Peter) then rock up to the khaki team’s sixties suburban where they tell them that today, they will be renovating one room each a la most of the head to head challenges thus far.
As head renovator, Nathan gets first pick at what room to renovate; the living room or dining area. He chooses the living room, leaving Natalia with the dining room. Natalia is surprised Nathan is giving her the best room in the house despite the fact it is the room with the most work required of it.
Peter tells them that this will be a daunting task, but to help them, they will have Luke and Peter to help them. Nathan gets to choose which person he can worth with and while it is a strenuous decision to make, he goes with Peter, leaving Luke with Natalia which is coincidental as Natalia and Luke are the last Queenslanders standing.
The rules are simple; the renovator of the best room wins. They have 5 hours to complete their rooms and their time begins…now.
Over at the fibro cottage, Baz and Robyn are rocking up to give the same info to the boys. Michael, as head renovator can either do the back or front living room. He goes with the front living room, leaving Jarrad with the back one. With that, August and Mel turn up and Michael, who is sick, chooses an on top of the world Mel, leaving Jarrad with August. Work for them, begins now.
They all have so much to do with Jarrad only up to the stage of installing electricity! Michael isn’t too concerned as all the furniture has been chosen already. It is just a matter of making a call for the furniture; and he can just worry about getting the shell of the room up to scratch.
Robyn comes in and interviews Jarrad whose plan is to paint, get furniture in the room and edit. He hasn’t seen the furniture yet, so he just has to hope it works. Robyn won’t hold him up any more; there is, as I’ve said, a lot to do.
After the break, we go to the sixties suburban where work has just begun. Like in the fibro cottage, there is a lot of work to do. Well, if there weren’t so many challenges…
Natalia has a bit of a plan in place and gets Luke up to speed on the dining area she is building. She is very impressed with Luke and his readiness to work as she works on the painting and Luke works on assembly.
Nathan is making a modern living area, and Brendan wonders if it will look ‘sixties suburban’. Nathan BS’s as usual that it will, haha.
Natalia explains her intricate plan to the judges who are quite impressed; but hope to God she doesn’t take her time shopping. Safe to say, she won’t and off she goes. She heads to The Renovator’s favourite store first, Freedom, and she gets sidetracked despite the fact she adamantly promised everyone she doesn’t. Still, this is a make or break challenge, so she needs to be thorough in some respects.
Nathan is there as well and Natalia hopes he has only just started. He buys a massive set of drawers and a few couches and obviously, it won’t all fit! He will have to do a few trips, which won’t work well for him.
Back at the house, Natalia finds that Luke has made VERY good progress but is cautiously optimistic, knowing anything could go wrong. Speaking of which, Nathan arrives back home to reveal the news that he will have to go on a second run.
After the break, we are back at the fibro cottage as the furniture begins to arrive. Robyn and Baz are a bit concerned for Jarrad who has not seen any of it.
Jarrad is laying the floors while August is a bit annoyed that there is no wall paint in the room. He goes to Michael’s room, only to find that they only have a bit of one tin! August will need to go to the hardware store and thinking something is up; Michael confirms he had no idea that there is only one tin. Still, Michael got in first and WILL be able to complete his room.
Robyn and Baz walk in and just Hmmm at one another. They realise that there is a lot to do. Jarrad is starting to stress now that August is gone but he has to give it his all, otherwise he is gone. He at one point breaks down over the stress.
Back to the sixties suburban and Natalia has given Luke with the backbreaking mission to build timber shelves for the wall. She explains that is has historical value as it used to be the old decking.
Nathan is about to return to his room where Peter is hard at work trying to get as much done as possible. Meanwhile, Natalia is well ahead, already having her floor complete.
Outside, the judges are discussing the progress of the house and reveal that Michael is now up to styling. He puts a couch in and thinks it is way too low. Even for me, it looks low. Maybe it is missing legs.
August comes back and Jarrad is immediately calmed. They buckle down and get painting!
Finally, Michael finds some legs for the seat and it looks 100% better.
There is an hour left and with so much left to do, August is pretty much giving up. It does look hopeless, I’ll give him that, but you’ll just have to get on with it!
After the break, Nathan returns from his second run with 40 minutes to go! Not only does he now have to start on the flat packs; but he also needs to clean, so its gonna be a hard day!
Luke begins to hand the timber shelves and while the first one goes on right, the second isn’t and with so much else to do, her lead is dissipating.
Meanwhile, everything seems to be going together for Jarrad and Michael who have 15 minutes to style their room!
Meanwhile, Luke and Natalia begin to stress and as it happens, Nathan is now ahead. Natalia begins to chuck things out of the room as an excuse to clean. Stress levels are so high, you can feel them!
Michael goes to see a neighbour to borrow some books for $50 with not much time left to just buy some.
Jarrad is hanging some artworks he has made himself which is quite artistic and clever.
With a few minutes remaining, Natalia and Luke are just trying to get the timber shelves up. Natalia finally gets her timber table in and Luke can finally finish his shelf.
With a minute to go, it is final designing time. Soon enough; no time remains, and they must all stop work. That was the TENSEST finish ever; but now; all the contestants have officially done all they can before finale.
Funnily enough; it is Jarrad who breaks down first and August seems to follow him. But looking at their room, and the struggle they went through; they have done a really good job. All things considered, probably the best job they could!
It is now time for judging and first up are the rooms from the fibro cottage and Michael is first with his front living room which looks absolutely fantastic. There are a few areas of slightly poor workmanship, but Robyn off the bat loves the colour in the room. Baz loves the walls but doesn’t so much like the skirtings near the doors. That was brief, but very important, as they move on to Jarrad’s absolutely fantastic looking room. All up; that is such a magnificent room and I can’t see why he can’t win today. No TV, but.
Robyn is amazed at the styling job he did in 20 minutes; unbelievable. Pete loves his homemade artwork and Baz is astounded by the immaculate but fast job they did on the ceiling, but fears the one coat of paint on the walls may let him down.
Now it is time to inspect the sixties suburban and as soon as the judges turn up, Natalia gets a bit teary; this is breaking them apart.
Nathan is first for inspection and his room looks magnificent. Nathan wanted a formal, modern, relaxing lounge (minus a TV). Robyn wants a smartie from the bowl. Peter wants to finish them off.
Pete doesn’t seem to think that for an intimate and formal lounge it is small enough, but Robyn thinks he has pulled it out of the hat today.
To Natalia’s room and with so much to do, Natalia breaks down at just thinking about how much went into it.
It looks very nice and rustic, but maybe a bit bland.
Robyn however, loves the simplicity and how she places everything. She calls her room a celebration of the cavity. Pete says her furniture does so much for her room and with that; judging is done, so who will be going home?
We’ll find out after the break as the judges head off to make their decision.
We’ll keep this brief. Only one from the fibro cottage and the sixties suburban house will go through to the final. This is a double elimination; and at this point in the competition, it will be a hard one.
It seems they are going to run through the winner of the sixties suburban first as another khaki member leaves. The contestant bringing the sixties suburban to auction is… Natalia! After countless eliminations, Nathan is packing up and leaving himself.
Unfortunately, Nathan will have to stay behind for the second decision for the night. These guys have not faced elimination as much, so this will undoubtedly be harder. The person taking the fibro cottage to auction is… Michael!
Jarrad will be joining Nathan on the journey out of the warehouse (and seriously, in case you’ve all forgotten how BIG that place is, it I’m fairly sure it crosses four different time zones!). Jarrad is in tears, but he did his best and it was a fantastic work.
Still, no tears from Baz.
With that; a very emotional and a very intricate episode comes to an end. It really is the last competitive episode before Wednesday’s finale. All topped off by some Nathan humour, giving Natalia keys he claims isn’t for the Sixties Suburban anyway (haha).
The only problem with this perfect episode is that it does not belong on Friday and was maybe a bit too crammed (although; if it aired on Thursday, it would have been worth it). What better way to alienate your key audience by airing the episode on a night they are all out. Not much else to say here, so let’s move on to the How To episode!
Courtney’s Verdict: 9.6/10
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