House Rules – a new week

It’s judging time, then on Tuesday, Katie and Alex hand over the keys to their rustic cottage in the NSW Southern Tablelands. Built in the 1800s, their piece of paradise is tight on storage and crumbling down around them.



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16 Comments

  1. I think the teams mostly did a decent job with the Sunshine Coast couple’s house. Although I’m not sure any of them really know what ‘aqua’ is (except for the perpetually cheerful flight stewardess), but after watching them all, I’m not sure I do anymore, either.

    The dining room was atrocious, though. That giant furniture installation which was uncomfortable and hogged too much of the space? That was pure ego, for me, pure “look at how clever we are” from Pete and Courtney (the thing that LLW accused the boys of doing).

    I like the idea of the secret hallway, but the one issue I had was using a bookshelf as one of the doors. Every time someone enters that room, the books and photos and plants on the bookshelf will fall off. That aside, it was a clever idea and I hope the boys get scored accordingly.

    I don’t understand the void in the bedroom. Katie and Alex couldn’t afford to do anything with it? How much money would it have taken for them just to put in a door, or a couple of timber shelves, or a bar with some clothes hangers or something? How rough *was* this season’s budget?

    I like most of these teams, and even the Designated Villains, this year, haven’t been very villainous. None of them seem very talented at interior design, but they all seem to be lovely people.

    Saw too little of Caloundra, though. I didn’t catch a glimpse of anyone I’m related to, although I’m almost sure I recognise a couple of those tradies. Anyway.

  2. “the perpetually cheerful flight stewardess” in a previous life, “The Beauty and the Geek”:

  3. The secret hallway might have been aesthetically pleasing, but how do you find your bedroom when you roll home after a party? And how do you describe where the bathroom is? It’s the second door on the left, just push your way along the wall until you find it. Plus I always have my bedroom and my kids bedroom doors open, especially when they were little, you need to be able to hear them in the night.

    I want to go on this show just so I can be over critical. “Wow a new drier should get me a few dollars on gumtree”.

  4. The 5 different interpretation of ‘aqua” would drive me mad. And kinda agree with LLB about the hallway, i do love the concept, but it is almost too big for such a small house.
    I liked the Flight attendant interpretation of the mermaid bathroom, they could have gone very literal but held back.
    The girls bedroom with the gold dots is fine for a year or two but i think the girl will grow out of it really quick.
    As soon as I saw the dining room, i commented on the waste of space. The bench thing with headboard looked a little airport waiting area.
    Agree with Wendy re the subway tiles in the kitchen.
    in the entry way, I would take points of each team for not working with each other to make the floor consistent between the kitchen and entry way.
    I really don’t like exposed brick, painted or not, so will always take points off for that!

    • If the bench in the dining room was built just to allow storage within, I would rather have gone without storage there and just had chairs on that side of the table too as there would have been plenty of room without whatever the space was behind the bench. Also, since the entry was the main access to the house, I would have liked a screen beside the refrigerator to make it a little more private when someone comes to the door.

    • I really liked the tiles in the entry, and think that they defined the space well. They didn’t clash with the timber floor at all. They were my favourite thing about the entry.

  5. I like that the home-owners did seem to appreciate their new house (although they did seem slightly-less keen on the screwed up dining room).

    And as impractical as the secret hallway is (like Colleen mentioned upthread), I still can’t help but like the idea of it. I mean, you wouldn’t need to leave the doors shut, anyway, particularly with the young kids.

    I liked that Tim and Mat got a 10 for their effort. I’m liking the boys more and more, the longer into this we go. Tim keeps showing up to home base wearing sneakers, and he’s getting more attractive, the longer this thing goes for. And they won the week, so, yay!

    Only one more week of the main renovations to go, and I tend to lose interest when they go back for the gardens (plus, I know a couple of spoilers). Pity that we’ll be without Katie and Alex, for the next 4 episodes, because they’re one of the more likeable couples.

    • I actually fast forwarded through the reveal, which is the first ep I have watched this season. All looked decent except the dining room. As others have said the aqua no teal no turquoise would be annoying. Bathrooms looked good and kitchen was fine. I liked the mermaid tiling

  6. Hey guys, they are half an hour from my house tonight at Gunderoo.
    They made it seem like they were way in the country but it’s an easy commute.
    I think I’ve seen this house but then everybody’s renovating out there.
    I will be out there on Saturday morning and I will have a sticky beak. If I could be bothered, I will take a photo and post it.
    No one cares if there is a garden spoiler, do they? Tell me now.

    • Ahh…I am still a week behind so this whole thread is a spoiler. I don’t mind that, but would rather not know who doesn’t make it past this stage until the gardens are under way. So, feel free to mention who IS there, but preferably not who ISN’T.
      Make sense, eh?

  7. ‘The heart and soul of the kitchen is the sink’ says male renovator. I don’t think so. But, perhaps that’s why sinks are often in an island that are sat at for eating and chatting. I don’t get that, but I’ve never thought of a sink as the heart & soul of a kitchen. Ever.

    • I don’t take a lot of what these teams say at face value, anymore.

      I thought the boys did a really good job with the baby’s room. I mean, they filled it with too much random junk, but that’s been happening all season long, so i’ll give them a pass. Everything else, I thought, was sweet and quite lovely.

      Alex and Katie were overjoyed at their daughter’s room, and Tim shed a few manly tears at their response, so all’s well that ends well.

  8. What a ridiculous storm in a teacup about being “strategic” (at the reveal of the Caloundra house)? Massive fail on the producers part to try to make Shayn & Carly into villians. As if all the teams aren’t thinking about the overall scores, busting a gut to try to pick whose zone was whose, and marking accordingly. One team gave four teams the same score. The whole early room reveal is meant to be ‘strategic’ in choosing who to go against. And in every early reveal, the home owners have known the identity of one of the two teams, so it is not difficult to work out which room they did.

    The holier-than-thou attitude of Pete & Courtney was particularly repellent, coming from those who have taken space without any thought of the practicalities of the house, and who consistently say that style and design are far more important that function.

    Add to that the obvious inconsistency of the Judge’s scoring – soft and encouraging with the first two houses, then overly harsh on particular teams to make sure the contest was even. LLB’s comments about the dining room were as harsh as last week’s. yet last week the team got a 3, this week the same criticism earns a 6?

    This house was generally good, and some parts were exceptional. Both bathrooms, the hall and entry were very good. The girls rooms were both ‘meh’ – one because it was a little bland, the other because it was OTT and hurt my eyes – not much sleep in that room. I liked the kitchen better than most we have seen, and if they had to use the dreaded subway tiles at least they changed it up. I agree with Carly about the laundry, perfect except for the revolting wallpaper (lucky it will fall off the wall with the steam from the dryer). I didn’t find anything to like in the dining room. Sitting like a ramrod to eat is not my idea of fun, the colours were blah, and they wasted the space in general. Also, they lost an external door to make the dining room – I hope there is a replacement somewhere. Main bedroom okay – love the shiplap wall but it was painted the wrong colour. I wish they had taken the hint about the books in there and made a bookcase feature. Finally the lounge – it was okay. Nice to not waste space with a fireplace, colours were nice, agree with Carly about the glass (I like the fact she placed emphasis on practicality over pretty design). Loved, loved the oak all through the house – really well done.

    I really wish the teams had been properly marked down for their ignorance and/or deliberate disdain for aqua. Lisa was the only one who nailed that, and I think it made her rooms great. Teal and wishy-washy blue-green should have received the same treatment as the black last week.

    Can we please see some boy’s rooms? I am really over the cliched design of the dancers.

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