36 Comments

  1. Another night of staring at $cotty’s new haircut. I’m pumped for this. Mind you, if the sandpaper kicks in and wickets start falling in England, I’ll be orf like a bucket of prawns.

  2. There seems to be tradies busting their guts in the background, while this lot of hopeless hard hats whine and cry before storming off to cries of “Honey!” and “Babe!”. Oslo Hotel or Goslow Hotel, you decide.

    High density living, how dense are these folk? $cotty looks like a brain surgeon in comparison.

  3. Did you know that this season of the Block is the biggest eva? We missed Scotty mentioning it about…oooh…maybe…the first zillion times. Tonight’s episode obstinately was dedicated to the replacing the floor joists and laying (or not laying) the screed but in reality was an ad for (in appearance order):
    Reece Bathroom (Forgotten dimensions)
    Bluescope Truecore steel (contestant forgot to name drop the brand when taking about the steel works)
    HiPages (contestant couldn’t get the storyline straight and stated Dan gave him the number)
    Carpet Court
    Beaumont Tiles (any bets they will recycle the tile shortfall storyline?)
    Mitre 10
    Freedom
    CSR (forgot to order gyprock)
    House of Orange (delivered furniture early)
    Clipsal
    Beacon Lighting
    The script editors really need to work on their placement product story lines as there is only so many times a contestant can ‘forget’ to do something so the sponsor looks like a hero .

    Just when you thought the plots couldn’t be any thinner, they introduce a new character called “Mighty Helpful” the carpenter. Just sad.

    What else did we learn tonight? Safety Cam is now Safety Sam.

    You apparently need a translator to hire plasterers in Melbourne.

    • Thank you, Maz, for resuming your Block correspondent duties. I watched 10 minutes of what seemed like filling buckets with rubble and Keith whingeing at people. So I switched channels

  4. What the…. I thought El””””ise is closer to 40. 33? That’s a rough 33. Or is it the botox in her forehead? And why is she always wearing clothes that nearly fall down from her boobs?

    Otherwise, it is really… noisy. Everything feels so overproduced. On the other hand, still a lot better than the dreadful NZ version.

    • Zhee,
      This is the worst season of The Block NZ. Did you see the Block Stars competition? Winners did not deserve it at all. They weren’t funny. I think that the guest judges were told to choose them as the winners so it would cause more drama/controversy. If the audience had voted I am sure they wouldn’t have won. Very few laughs from the audience and they were supposed to be doing a comedy performance. Oh well. I’m not liking The Block AU that much either especially Jesse and all the fake drama that’s happening again but Block NZ is so much worse. Even more fake and scripted than AU and contestants doing so little of the work. The two judges are terrible.

      • Smythe, I gave up on NZ. Two teams are nasty and then they brought back that bitch from last year. Amy or something. She made me give up on the NZ version last year. I never can pull through that version because the contestants are really unlikable. So unliakble you can only turn it off.
        The silly challenges all the time, just dumb. At least the AU version removed that crap. I also really dislike the NZ host who only stirs the pot for more drama.

  5. I’m no builder and have never renovated, I am genuinely interested to know how long the process should take?
    Like how long do they re commend between plastering and painting? How long does it take to knock up a frame? How long to lay carpet. Adding to the fact they are doing it room by room, of course there are some efficiencies to be had if it wasn’t being completed room by room.

    • I have renovated. Putting down carpet is quick – half an hour plus a bit for a bedroom, no angles. Plastering to painting is an issue – the plaster has to be dry, and no humidity/rain. You don’t nescessarily plaster the whole wall. You put up dry wall and then plaster the cracks. Still, if you rush it, it’s dodgy. Maybe they have fans? It looks like the middle of summer. That would help.
      I’ve knocked down rather than built-up so I can’t really talk to the frames. We measured and measured and measured so the little framing we put up just went zot (technical term). I am guessing …?

      • Gyprocking takes quite a while to do it properly, although I expect experts to be faster especially if they use those groovy stilts. Then the joints have to be plastered.

        We usually leave a couple of days between plastering and painting, depending on the weather. All the plastering has to be sanded and wiped down with a damp cloth before you can touch it with undercoat. Then you need minimum half day between each coat of paint, inc undercoat (ie three coats) – add more time to that if you are doing a feature paint, as you should do all else (floor, cornice and other walls) to finished, before starting the feature (I think that is why wallpaper has made a comeback on reno shows but not in real life, because you get the effect of a feature paint but it is much quicker). Gloss areas (skirting, architrave) first coat when the wall paint is touch dry, then one day before another coat. I have always considered that the paint timeframes on these shows are fudged. Also, why aren’t they allowed to undercoat as they go, why all painting at once? Oh, the need for drama of course.

        Not to mention, of course, that many of the “changes” the contestants “think of” have to be engineered (minimum a week) and often approved through council.

        • Yeah, I went to the Elsternwick houses, and would agree, the best way to describe it is a an AirBnB or holiday house you rent that has been cheaply done up and no one has bothered to look after it properly.
          i was just curious, if they have actually been give the right amount of time to even have a chance at doing a decent job.

  6. Woohoo… we have the first spotting of the McCafe logo and an awkward breakfast storyline to feature A2 milk and LitenEasy.

    Back to the Block proper and we see the bogan Queenslander wander around looking for her missing recess lights.

    The Mid Coast Bogans discover that you can’t paint wet plaster and a shower recess needs support.

    After a montage of late night painting and crying we arrive at the judging.

    Mark & Mitch

    Shaynna is delighted to see colour and what they have done is pretty impressive. Darren likes the scale. Neale observes that Mark and Mitch must really know what they are doing but even though the pendant light is beautiful and the carpet is bold, there are too many heroes – a whole party of heroes. At this rate they will run out of money.

    Queenslanders
    Shaynna is underwhelmed by the unfinished room. Shaynna is bored as she has seen the style repeatedly over the last three years. They have demonstrated they do not understand architectural styles mixing provincial, federation, art deco. They need to do more research on neo- Georgian and be more consistent.

    Mid North Coast Bogans MNCB
    Personally we couldn’t get past what they have done to the walls. The MNCB decided that the scandi beachy look is suitable for a terrace built in the 1860s.
    Shaynna observes they need to ‘layer’ it up and introduce an element of romance. They should be aiming for a colonial style.

    To be continued…no literally…they are holding over the rest of the judging until tomorrow.

  7. If they wouldn’t have had so much filler the rest of the judging could have been shown in one episode. Hope they don’t keep splitting the judging results over two episodes.

    • Has this commentator actually watched the Block? “The Block isn’t meant to be the kind of entertainment that panders to our sick primal desire to revel in the suffering and humiliation of strangers.” The Block is exactly that.

      At least they are spot on about MC “But now that MasterChef has shuddered to a grinding halt in the absence of George, Gary and Matt (let’s not kid ourselves; however they try to revive it, that show is deader than a deflated souffle)”

  8. If you have a Judge who can’t pronounce the word ” contemporary”, what chance the contestants? Want to be dumbed down? Watch Scotty and The Block.

  9. Sorry gice, we missed the first 20 minutes tonight.

    Neale loves, loves, loves the Real Estate Agent’s apartment. It is finished. Darren loves that it perfectly combines heritage with contemporary lines. Is the real estate agent a triple threat??? (Wasn’t that four seasons ago)

    On to the scores (sorry, don’t know all the names yet).
    Darren, Shaynna, Neale:
    A1 Mark and Mitchell . 8,8,8=24 (low score for what they did)
    A2: QLD Bogans 6,6,5.5=17.5
    A3 Mid North Coast Bogans: 6,6,5,5=17.5
    A4 Typo Bogan sans Bra 7.5,7,6.5=21
    A5 Jesse (Its Jess-E, Scotty, There is an e there for a reason) 8.5,8, 9=25.5 (winners)

    Scotty is irritated that Jesse corrected him and warns that if he does that again he will deduct a mark.

    Real Estate Agent wins the Suncorp Safe. The contents include:
    20k Cash
    TV Mirror $10k voucher
    Nash Copper Custom Rugs $10k voucher
    Art Lovers Gallery $10k voucher
    Beacon Lighting $10k voucher
    Cannon Attitude 15k voucher
    Beaumont Tiles 10k voucher
    Artnovion $25k home sound theatre system
    Plus the $30k safe

    Of course they are not going to tell the other contestants what they won as how else will you generate simmering hostility.

    On to the ensuite and of course drama needs to be stirred up over the floor drainage. Apparently what is standard in NSW is an optional extra in VIC. REA arks up and $cotty bites.

    Qld Bogan whines and moans that she hasn’t shaven her under pits for 3 days. The biggest Block eva and this is all the footage they can find????

  10. Is it just me or has the depressing grey/black trend given way to a cacophany of colour? So many mismatched, and incorrectly toned colours mashed together. One of the rooms must have had twenty different colours in various shades, and they were complimented for the use of colour, when everything clashed.

    Don’t get me wrong, I much prefer any colour to grey or black, but surely these furnishings give people a headache?

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