House Rules – Tues, May 23 – Sean & Ella’s place

Another week, another house. This time it’s Sean and Ella’s place and I bet they won’t behave like ungrateful wretches even when the Grumpians and Bec and Troy stuff it up.
Check out that noisy highway and – because I know some of you will want to straighten it – the tilted siting of the house on the block.

And the House Rules are:



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84 Comments

  1. Another house at a weird angle on their block? Argh!

    Sean and Ella, I do feel for them, because I imagine between studying, and their time-intensive and stressful careers, they simply wouldn’t have the funds to renovate a house that clearly needed to be demolished about 20 years ago. But they seem like nice kids, and I’m sure they’ll appreciate the renovation.

    It’s just, now the rest of us have to sit through another few episodes with the Bogans in one corner and the Grumpians in the other. Eugh.

    • No, that won’t happen until the judging episodes (I’m guessing Sunday night, but it might be Monday).

      • Tks….the promos sucked me in….thought it was tonight.
        Thought walkout was an extension of last nights judging because I am sure bogans were wearing same clothes in the promo as last night…

        • They all wear the same thing every night, like a personal uniform.
          Ella in a pair of overalls, Kate in sportswear, Danielle in a button up sleeveless shirt, Bec in a denim shirt, Fiona in a generally blue shirt often with a tie up neckline and the other grump in some soft of ugly patterned t shirt. The boys all have them too but they aren’t nearly as exciting to describe. I feel sorry for those that are instructed to wear something really not suitable for renovating, this year Kate is probably the luckiest.

  2. No! Another weird angle. I didn’t know I had OCD till the aerial shots disturbed me so much.

  3. Has no one on this show watched the past twenty billion seasons of the Block?
    Gobsmacked that ‘indi-scandi’ is a novel concept to some of the teams.

    • I am utterly surprised that Troy hasn’t studied. I see him with a PhD in etiquette, possibly with a thesis on “The best ways to honour the women in your life”.

  4. How is it that the oldest contestants are also, hands down, the most immature? I just cant believe the level of juvenile bs that comes out of them!

    • The Grumpians have this weird tic of *always* assuming that everybody’s out to get them, so they’re always playing the defensive-victim card.

      And neither of them have realised that it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. It seems obvious that if you’re always going to be defensive and angry, then obviously, nobody will want to talk to you about anything. But yet, they blame everybody else.

      Gosh, why are we watching these two cretins, again?

    • It was tragically funny.

      They have spat the dummy getting the bonus room. I guess not knowing how to spell Nordic may hinder their Google search.

    • Oh… they thought nautical… just connected the dots that aren’t supposed to be connected haha

  5. On what planet is plastic plants embedded in a bathroom wall great design?

    Again, have these people not watched the Block?

  6. I *love* how Aaron and Daniella are literally flipping a coin to determine which team they dislike the most, in order to sabotage somebody with the bonus room.

    I think all this talk of alliances is bullshit, to be honest. The teams who are the same age, same stage of their relationship and who have similar careers are obviously going to get on well with each other.

    • Agreed.
      I still don’t get why the Grumpians are so bent out of shape that they aren’t included in discussions when they SPECIFICALLY and loudly proclaimed that they weren’t here to make friends and promptly and delightedly low-balled everyone’s scores. They have made every encounter a confrontation – I’d run from them too and I’m even older than them – give me a cheerful young person like the twins, Sean/Ella, Aaron and Daniella anytime.

      • Absolutely.

        Even Kate seems pleasant enough, although I think an extended period of time in a stressful situation with Harry might be testing, but the point stands. Those two awful women loudly protested that they weren’t here to make friends, and now they’re upset that they haven’t. *sigh*

        • It wasn’t right of the other teams to leave the Grumpians out of the discussion BUT it is the Grumpians fault. Their attitude and comments have led to this. At least they seem to have some respect for Kate.

    • I don’t understand why they are so pissed, someone has to get it, they haven’t had one yet, they can have a turn now. (they also won’t recognise that maybe their behaviour the other night had something to do with it)

  7. Ok after all that, I’m now back up to date! It’s is amazing the amount of recapping I was able to FF thru!
    Can’t believe the attitude of Troy and Bev about the bonus room after their critique of their house! Are they that shocked?!
    I really don’t like the grumpians but they did have a point about the ceiling chats tonight. More likely to get what u want from the grumpians if u discuss with them and make it look like it was their idea all along!

  8. It was fair to give Troy and Bec the bonus room as they haven’t done one yet, and they do know design, should be a breeze!
    I’m sure they would have given the bonus room to someone else as well if they could.

  9. I spent the night at my Mum’s last night. Poor thing – I made her sit through King Bogan’s Judgement. I was recording it at home but couldn’t wait and watched it with Mum. Funniest thing, Mum rarely watches TV at all, and certainly not 7s version of “reality”, yet the second the Grumpians appeared she took one look at their expressions and said “what awful women”.

    Overall, after watching, Troy/Bec…. hmmmm nope lets be honest… Troy … cos Bec’s not allowed an independent opinion.. anyway Troy wasn’t as savage as the promos made out. He did seem to like certain zones. But when he was negative, he was super negative. A 2 for the ambos was totally undeserved. They may as well have left the bathroom as it was with the addition of a gilded bucket fit for King Bogan.

    As for the link posted in the last thread with an interview with Troy – I call bullshit. He claims there that his stepson was only being polite in saying he liked the room. Let’s give the kid an Oscar. I thought both kids were genuine in the appreciation Also he claimed that it would take at least a year to save enough money to “fix” the house. O.M.F.G Troy !!!!!! Seriously ?!?!?! You really think people believe that you are going to scrimp and save to “fix” your “botched reno” ?? Really ??? When tattoos and piercings in the past came ahead of working plumbing ? . If you could tolerate, for the last 15 years, pouring a bucket of water down the dunny and dealing with the splash back, and you expected your “Queen” to deal with it as well, then don’t expect Australia to believe you are hard pressed to deal with black tiles.

    • That Troy’s “throne” is chockers with king~sized turds is about as royal as it gets at his place, sorry, “castle”..

      Sewerage arrangements befitting medieval king and queen perhaps.

    • I’ve just watched this ep, Julie and I agree that Troy was not as savage as the promos portrayed. Driving to the house they were almost sickeningly sentimental about being “blessed” with a reno’ed house. And during the walk through, he was quite resonable about what he liked/disliked. It is a pity that when they got to the score reveals, they chose to express their opinions in such offensive ways. He needs a lesson in tact.

      I presume when Troy talks about “fixing” it will mainly be taking all the black out of the ensuite, which will take a bucket of money.

  10. On a more positive note, how gorgeous are those twins ? For the 2nd week in a row, the homeowners react with surprise on learning that a zone they liked was the work of the boys. And yet the twins react with good humour.

  11. What about in the preview for tonight when the other Victorian runs out to Fiona to tell her what’s happening and Fiona replies “Watch him run like a mouse”
    She takes delight out of bringing people down. Thankfully looks like Harry holds his own.
    Another line of Fiona’s “We need to get what we want, we do not take no for an answer”
    Who is this woman and her friend. I know they will stuff the lounge room again.
    Can’t believe how Troy and Bec carried on about bonus room. Someone had to get it for goodness sakes. The fact they are the only team that haven’t done one is plenty good enough reason.
    It is really starting to make me feel ill watching and listening to these horrible, nasty people. It’s quite disturbing. How can people be so horrid to other human beings? Absolutely no reason for it.

    • I feel dragged down watching this – it’s not a bit of fun anymore with some dodgy decorating decisions and a silly countdown deadline followed by a lovely feel good moment when people you could empathise with got a “transformed” house.
      It’s degrading and unpleasant and I won’t watch next year, after enjoying it mildly for some years now.
      Calling someone a “battler” and parading the fact that they live in western Sydney and can’t pronounce the letter ‘g’ is lazy stereotyping. When that “battler” is a nasty piece of work, all sympathy and interest is gone. Same goes for the Victorians – two bitter twisted women who make every encounter a battle is not my idea of entertainment. I can watch the news if I want to see the worst in the human condition – I don’t want to watch entertainment shows to be dragged through the cesspool.

      • We are definitely in mindmeld or something, this week, because that’s words out of my mouth. This isn’t a fun show to watch (and MKR wasn’t this year either because of the confrontational assholes picked by the channel 7 casting department). This is train-wreck television at it’s purest and worst.

        I’m invested in this now for the teams I do actually like, but you’re right. This *is* degrading and unpleasant. If I want to watch people act like toddlers, I’ll find actual toddlers. I think channel 7 has just gone too far.

        • They have ruined a good show, used to be my favourite. Why couldn’t they just leave it alone instead of always trying to change things?

    • Troy & Bec and the Grumpians bring the show down to a very low level. They are rude, nasty, ignorant, self-serving and downright horrible. It was only fair that TB get the bonus room even though it was determined by a coin toss. They should have been overjoyed about getting it instead of whining and crying. Troy is such a talented designer that he can use it to showcase more of his design skills.
      I especially liked the greenery that he and Bec chose for the bathroom. That’s going to look gorgeous and the judges will certainly give them extra points for that. I can imagine that he will be adding similar greenery to the study and the bonus room. 😉

  12. I don’t believe ch7s promos anymore, especially after Josh and Amys non-existent walk out. But the look on Joh’s face appears genuine.Maybe Troy just needed to do a wee.

    I hate the grumpians as much as anyone but I think they shouldn’t have given them yet another lounge room. Surely they deserve to at least have a go at a bathroom/laundry or bedroom. Isn’t 2 houses with ruined lounge rooms enough. They wouldn’t need to co-ordinate with other teams as much if they were in a stand alone room. Maybe the producers did this on purpose to stir the pot?

    • I guess rooms like kitchens and bathrooms are flashier and more likely to attract the big points. Lounge rooms rely so much on what’s around them for the feel, such as kitchen and dining, so they can be “meh” zones.

  13. Agree with you Collevid that the Grumpians shouldn’t have been given another lounge room. Joh should be assigning the zones so that each team gets a chance to do different rooms and doesn’t repeatedly get stuck doing the same thing.
    Also hope that if HR returns for another season the bonus room idea does not return. No bonus zone, no -5, +5. That room should just be part of a zone.

    • The contestants should not be the ones to allocate the zones. For Aaron and Daniella this is their second kitchen, the Grumps second lounge and one of the twins said last night that this is their third master bedroom. I’m not sure if any others have doubled up. I think each team should have an opportunity to do a different zone each week.

    • I saw this clip today on Facebook, and after thinking about it for a little while, I figured it out.

      Fiona’s used to getting her own way. She’s not used to people standing up to her, or saying no, or doing anything other than worshiping the ground she walks on (which makes me quite terribly sad for her children).

      So when Harry just dismissed her by saying that building a wall around the whole room would be a great idea “because I don’t have to talk to you anymore”, she just couldn’t handle it. She has absolutely no idea how to deal with people standing up to her nonsense. So her inner-computer just froze and shutdown, ergo, she goes out screaming obscenities at the camera about what a jerk he is, because she literally doesn’t know how to cope with that.

      I’d feel sorry for her, because clearly there’s some wires in her mind that are unplugged, but she’s such a jerk that I don’t care enough.

  14. So we get to spend another night hanging out with the wicked witch of the Grampians, then?

    I can’t wait.

  15. I think a lot of the new rules have contributed to the downward spiral this show is in, as others here have said it’s just not fun any more. Making the contestants choose the zones takes objectivity and fairness out of the show and the bonus rooms pile on the pressure, with poor results for the homeowners. I much prefer the way the rules were in the past seasons. The only good part of this season is LLB….

  16. Is Sean and Ella’s house going to be one bedroom? I missed what the BOnus Room actually is sorry but it looked kinda small on the plan…

  17. Am I the only cynic who wonders if Fiona and Nicole are plants? Sometimes it feels to me that they are actors, who have been told the role they are there to play.

    I have trouble believing that this behaviour is real.

    • I just can’t believe their lack of self-awareness. They’re a pair of grown women, but they act like four-year-olds. I don’t get it.

      But then I thought the same about Josh and Amy, so what do I know?

    • I’ve also wondered about that, but can’t believe anyone would willingly set themselves up for that much hatred from the viewers.

  18. And we’re up to the screaming match.

    What’s this actually going to accomplish, Fiona? The window’s been put in, the roof’s already been raised. So what are you actually going to get out of screaming at a (pretty much) stranger on national television? What’s your endgame, here?

    • What must her kids be thinking. Imagine them at school hoping against hope their friends weren’t watching.

      • I do feel sorry for her kids, for a lot of reasons, to be honest.

        The most common response on the House Rules FB page seems to be that Fiona genuinely seems mentally unbalanced and needs some kind of professional help. I wouldn’t disagree with this assessment.

        But it’s like I said above. She’s not used to losing. She got something that she didn’t want, and she couldn’t do anything about it. So without any practice at coping with that kind of thing, she had a meltdown.

  19. I once shared bench space in an office with a bit of a neat freak. I can be a bit untidy – truth be told – I’m a slob. My research papers etc used to pile up and spill over. Came in one day to find she’d put a strip pf masking tape on the bench to separate our areas. I would come in early every day and move it over a few millimetres. Took her ages to figure out what I was doing.

    Perhaps Kate and Harry should try that.

  20. Uh oh – a gap in the wall paper. Maybe Troy wishes now he’s spent at least one day studying maths.

  21. Fiona~ “rat up a drain pole”. It’s hard to “act” that . She’s more serious than Donald Trump about her “wall”, I’ll give her that. What a tantrum.

  22. As much as I don’t like the Grumpians they made an agreement w/ Kate and Harry about where the zones would be located and Harry reneged on that. However Fiona was over the top with her reaction. Agree with others that it almost seems as if the Grumpians’ behaviors and comments are scripted.

    • I said this to somebody on the show’s FB page the other night. Even giving Fiona and Nicole the benefit of the doubt that they were in the right and Harry/Kate did the wrong thing (which is giving the Grumpians far more than they deserve, IMHO) … even assuming they were right … there is no reason whatsoever that Fiona couldn’t have calmly walked into the house, asked to chat to Harry about what had happened, and had a civil and polite conversation where he explained why he’d done what he’d done. There’s no reason that Fiona couldn’t have done that. *Instead*, she storms in and starts screaming at him and stomping her foot in frustration about what a jerk he is for doing something she didn’t want him to do.

      Even if she was in the right, she’s so obnoxious and immature and hypocritical and abrasive that she doesn’t deserve one iota of sympathy. Not one bit.

  23. I’ve just realised that the producers have ditched the little note from the children explaining what they like in their room. I miss that.

    Also, I don’t get why they seem to be reducing all the homes by a bedroom, using the space for some other type of living area. Surely that is reducing the ultimate value of the house?

  24. Hello, posting from the UK so a day behind. Posting to register.
    There seem to be a lot more recaps this year and other changes not for the better but it is still a favourite. Troy is gruesome.

    • Hi Rusty – welcome! So you are familiar with LLB I guess? I find him entertaining on this but I wonder if it’s because it’s small doses?

  25. I was watching Troy in the loft when I said gruesome, he emerged in better humour than expected and he was doing well until the preview for Sunday. It is odd to me that the two worst teams at renovations were the meanest at scoring but got the most valuable work done on their houses.

  26. Hi Juz, thanks for the welcome, I was able to post immediately so perhaps I registered before. I have seen LLB on various shows over the years, he is definitely tolerable only in small doses IMO but he keeps getting cast so someone likes him. At least he does not take himself seriously and he has done some lovely designs on DIY SOS:The Big Build.

  27. Hi Rusty and welcome! I feel embarrassed that you have to watch our fellow Australian’s Troy, Bec and Fiona and Nicole, display their despicable behaviour.
    Please know the majority of us are definitely not like those horrid four.
    Looking forward to reading your comments.

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