SCOTT: Previously...
Unfortunately, this house has got treated pine stumps
which don't meet code.
..our Blockheads are learning the hard way
that 70-year-old houses can have a lot of hidden problems.
So, unfortunately, you guys have to rip the whole flooring system out
and put new concrete stumps in.
You've got timber stumps too,
so, unfortunately, mate, you're in the same boat as house three.
PRODUCER: How much time will that eat into your time?
Lots. It'll eat into lots of my time.
SCOTT: Tonight, we're halfway through work-from-home week.
Not looking good.
Things go from bad to worse for house three.
KEITH: We're gonna have to re-brick it.
But if we can't get a bricklayer here tomorrow, you're in trouble.
(CRACKING)
STEPH: Guys, what was that?
LEAH: That actually sounded like a landslide.
Hear this large bang. Who knows what could've happened?
So, to win some much-needed reno cash...
(CHEERING) ..and the gnome...
I've organised a surf...
It's a hell of a day at sea. (YELPS)
..and turf challenge...
Start sculpting! Go! Whoo!
SHELLEY: Oh, no!
..that should be a sandblast.
Leah is paddling backwards. (LAUGHS)
Why is she doing that? ASH: Go, Leah!
(GULL CRIES)
# 'Cause when I make my right move
# I'm gonna step... #
Grab your galoshes
because we're about to trudge through a wet Wednesday on the Block.
What good fun.
Melbourne has got quite a soaking over the last few weeks
and last night was no exception.
LEAH: You need to empty that bucket, bro.
That's right next to your tools too.
All of our Blockheads have tried to tarp
their old or non-existent ceilings
and my builders, the Nine In Six lot,
are throwing up the Truecore steel frames for the second floor.
But it looks like the dam is about to burst.
The tarp did pretty good.
This week, all our Blockheads, bar Steph and Gian,
are working in the old houses for the very first time.
All the work-from-home rooms are still just empty shells
and there's a concrete truckload of work to do.
# I won't back down till the day it's done... #
Over in house two, Leah has already typed up her to-do list.
Woke up on Wednesday, rain, gloomy, miserable, muddy.
I'm, like, "I'm going back to bed."
Leah, we need another set of hands up there today.
Just get more apprentices. Busy day.
Well, all of this, I can do from my bed.
Two lounges from Satara,
desk, chair and art from Camerich.
I need to find a rug. Lighting.
I need someone to make some cabinetry.
I need to go to Stoke about the fireplace.
A mirror.
Work out my plans for...
Work out my curtains as well.
But, Ash, I'd really love a McCafe.
I'm staying here, though.
House two might be off to a slow start this morning
but next door, Kyle and Leslie are jazzed up on the java
and already have a bit of framing done.
But there's one small window issue that's a 'pain in the glass'.
We're just trying to sort our window out at the moment
because the frame that's been made is way bigger than the opening,
so we either have to have a new window made or make the face bigger.
For the work-from-home space/ media room,
their large window will be covered in sheer pink curtains
to let in that dappled afternoon sunlight.
They want to create a bright and breezy room with light sofa chairs,
matching white ottoman and a light timber desk and shelves.
I've just spoken to the window mob.
He's gonna come out now, remeasure, right,
because there's so many window mob miscommunications somewhere
and they've gone off the plan and not checked.
We're getting a new frame made... So that's been sorted. Yep.
..and that'll be here in a couple of days.
But it's just whether or not we'll have glass made for the frame.
And then we sort of went ahead and double-checked all the other windows
to make sure that the same thing wasn't gonna happen.
Another day living the life on the Block.
What day is it? Wednesday.
LIBERTY: Eliza is really crook.
She has been basically asleep since 4:00pm yesterday.
I think she's slowly getting up today
but I'm not sure how, like, useful she'll be.
While Eliza takes it easier this morning,
Liberty is planning luxe-looking cabinetry
and a custom-made desk for their room
and she's brought in a cabinetmaker to help.
So you need to be able to have enough space to put your laptop
and be able to write on a book, so 350's not deep enough.
We're just chatting about the cabinetry with Sam
and our builder Mark this week
because Kinsman, it's too quick of a turnaround time
for them to help us out with any cabinetry.
Yeah, I like your point about, like, the round edges
and things like that.
This is just very much flatpack.
So, this week, we've decided, even though it's a work-from-home space,
we've decided to do a guest bedroom.
We feel like it's really important
to have a bedroom downstairs in our space
because our remaining three bedrooms are upstairs
but we're still gonna put in there a desk for them
to be able to work from home if they want to.
The sisters' guest bedroom will feature pops of colour,
with blue wallpaper, terracotta bedding, round side tables, chair
and some sort of desk.
Maybe this or this.
Definitely not this. (HORN HONKS)
Unless we just buy a desk.
It's a possibility. It's probably gonna be a lot cheaper.
Liberty's been feeling pretty flat
since the judges handed down their verdict on their studio last week.
We felt horrendous after the judging, particularly me.
I took it really personally because the feedback was around styling,
which is what I'm doing.
MARTY: It's the finesse in the styling.
It just... It seems very juvenile.
Had it have been empty, I would've been happier.
But since then, she's been struggling to make decisions.
I'd even make them drawers. Yep.
Make all the drawers? It just looks very kitchenette.
Mm-hm. Yep.
As you may have noticed, Lib's not coping well with the feedback.
It wasn't constructive, right, but she's really being hit hard.
I call her a bit of a Nick Kyrgios.
Back in the day, when she played tennis and if she was losing
she would, like, throw her racquet and give up and just walk off
and I feel like this has been an example.
I need some of my Lleyton Hewitt persona to, like, wear off on her.
PRODUCER: So, why are you Lleyton Hewitt?
I just feel like I never up. (LAUGHS)
# You look like an angel... # Look like an angel... #
SCOTT: At first glance, these 1950s houses look alluring
but as the Blockheads started to peel back the veneer this week,
they've realised they just might be...
# You're the devil in disguise... #
Yesterday, house two had to yank out the old timber subfloor stumps
and concrete in the new Ezipiers.
And now Dan is checking out the subfloor
to give the builders the green light.
# The way you see... #
What happened here? Where?
What's happened to this stuff?
Yes, bit of a drama.
Yep, popped my foot on the stump.
It just plopped over.
I'll just add that we'd spent the whole day doing this.
Leah comes back for five minutes.
"I'm going to the fridge."
Oh... (LAUGHS)
These are all 1mm, 1mm, 1mm...
Ten.
(LAUGHS)
SCOTT: If they can get their floor level,
Leah and Ash are going all-out with some bold moves,
including deep-sea-green walls and large green rug,
plus a funky desk, two occasional chairs and a luxe marble fireplace.
They're all within a couple of mil.
She stood on it and it's just sunk.
(LAUGHS) Come on, Leah.
Over in house four,
Gian is working alongside his third builders in three weeks,
Jack and brother Charlie.
BOTH: New kids on the Block.
Jack and Charlie are intense.
They're brothers and they are loud.
MAN: Cut me another one. MAN: Yep.
268, please.
Yeah, write these down.
And Steph is out shopping for a desk and rug
for their media room/ work-from-home space,
with her trusty material board.
So, because my palette is quite tonal...
Mm-hm.
..it's important that I'm layering with the correct textures,
so that's why I bring it.
Big question of this week was
can we fit a grand desk in the middle of the room?
And if it fits, that desk will feature centre stage in their room.
Against the back wall will be two more desks with shelving
but they have decided to ditch the middle bookshelves in favour of a TV,
adding smart sliding cabinetry, along with a comfy sofa.
I wanted this, yeah, little desk situation.
It's supposed to be small
so that you can easily put it underneath the window
and move it around... Mm-hm.
..make this room more of a media, multipurpose space. Yep.
Table, rug, couch. (DING!)
('NEED YOU TONIGHT' BY INXS PLAYS)
Five days and counting till judgement day
and house number three have barely made a crack
in their work-from-home room.
# I need you tonight... #
This is also the first time
Kristy and Brett have had to reno in the old house
and yesterday they found out that old houses can come with big problems.
KEITH: Gee, I haven't seen that for a while.
We had our crew go through and rip up the flooring
to find a nice little surprise,
that all of our stumps that hold up our house is held up by pine stumps.
That's got me stumped.
Oh, gee. (LAUGHS) Get out of here. (LAUGHTER)
BRETT: So we've gone to remove these pine posts that should not be there.
We were expecting concrete bases attached.
They've just gone, oooh, straight out.
And we've gone, "Oh, crap."
Move me on upstairs, I say.
Welcome to the old section. Yeah, right?
I know there's no floor, roof or anything but...
(LAUGHS) ..I still reckon you'll finish.
Alright. I hope so. I like your optimism.
Yeah, we've gotta be optimist... (LAUGHS)
We've gotta get a subfloor inspection,
we're gonna have to get a wall inspection.
We're seeing dirt in our room on a Wednesday.
Last night, the new concrete stumps were installed
but come Sunday, Brett and Kristy are hoping to deliver
a dark and moody workspace complete with Laminex panelled walls,
herringbone on the floors, stylish comfy chairs
and floor-to-ceiling curtains.
That's if the walls hold up...
Bit of an issue, mate? Yeah, mate.
..because this morning, house three builder Dan and Keith
have spotted another major issue.
The brickwork under the window appears to be a little loosey-goosey.
It was up here. We've taken it two courses down.
In the process, these bricks have been damaged.
Structurally, probably not where it needs to be.
No.
It seems reno-ing this 70-year-old house
is now like playing a game of Jenga.
Any hard knocks and the brickwork could topple.
And that's not all. Keith has spotted another serious crack.
I've noticed a crack here.
On feeling it, though, it might be just in the render.
Oooh, yeah. Doesn't look good.
It's where the lintel is too.
You can see here, though, all the way through.
KRISTY: We had a big crack...
All the way down there, all the way there.
The mortar in our bricks is actually coming away...
Yeah, they...
..and it wouldn't be able to sustain anything attaching to it.
And the crack's, like 6mm, 7mm.
I'm seeing daylight all the way through that.
(GULL CRIES) (THUNDER CRACKS)
(HAMMERING)
Not looking good.
SCOTT: We're halfway through work-from-home room week...
The crack's basically going all the way up.
..and house three can't catch a break.
I can see daylight. The crack's, like, 6mm, 7mm.
Not only do Kristy and Brett
have to re-stump all the floors of their house
but today their builder Dan has discovered
their house is literally cracking up.
I'm also even noticing areas like...
Like here.
Yeah, there.
Over here.
I think we have to get Doug in here
and just get a method of fixing this up.
I'm worried whether this is gonna take longer
than what you've got for reveal,
that's what I'm concerned about.
Well, the person that did the brickwork here originally
would've used the same technique throughout the whole house
and looking from the outside,
you can see how the mortar's been laid in between the bricks.
It doesn't look up to scratch
and I just hope this doesn't keep happening week after week
because they simply won't be able to afford it.
And now Keith needs to break the news to Kristy.
Hopefully she doesn't crack up too.
Hello. How are you?
It's a day.
(LAUGHS) Yeah. Poor Dan.
I'm glad I'm not him.
We are finding some pretty nasty stuff.
A lot of your brickwork isn't up to scratch.
We're gonna have to re-brick it.
Right.
Would you suggest that that's going to be a lengthy process without...
Well, hopefully we can get a bricklayer here tomorrow.
Mm-hm.
Then it should be dry Friday, Saturday and you can finish off.
But if we can't get a bricklayer here tomorrow, you're in trouble.
Yeah. Yep.
Should it get real bad, we would need to re-brick the existing house.
Imagine if we had to do full new bricklaying here.
Like... Every week bricklaying.
Yeah. Oooft.
In just nine weeks time, these multi-million-dollar houses
spanning over 3,000 square metres with 70 rooms in total
will go under the hammer.
Normally, the structural drawings of the houses are only used by Keith,
Dan and the Nine In Six builders
but because of the unique build this year...
This year, there's too much involved with the build.
Thank god!
..I've asked Keith to hand it all out to everyone.
Step down to your bathroom detail. Yes.
Stump detail.
Got all your lintels, all your beams...
Perfect. ..etc...
This is what I needed. Thank you.
Now I know that there's a column there.
An upstairs room could affect how the downstairs needs to be built,
so everyone needs to look through the engineering plans
with a fine-toothed comb
or there could be trouble ahead.
You're not working on one room. You're working on a whole house.
So that's engineering for the rest of the house.
Yep. Wall bracing, lintels, beams, etc.
With the second storey, there's obviously services, you know,
bathrooms and wet areas upstairs need to waste...
So they need to be considered when you're working in a room downstairs.
Right above Leah and Ash's work-from-home room
is the master bedroom ensuite
and the waste pipe will have to come down through the ceiling above
and builder Rob and Ash aren't flushed with ideas on how to hide it.
So, I was having a lovely morning in my studio.
I get a frantic phone call, "Get up here now.
"We need to know what's happening with the pipework."
"Get up here now?" I would've been, like...
It was, like, "Come on, come on." Anyway, so I got up there...
I don't have time to chitchat like you.
I'm just, like, "This is what needs to happen
"and it needs to happen now."
Yeah, and I don't have time to chitchat either.
I'm thinking, because I want to create a space for wardrobes
for the future,
so I want to do a nib wall... Yep.
600. Yep.
Run the back shallow.
This becomes dead space and that's where your pipework can go.
So, Leah wants to add a forced wall that will hide the pipe
and put floor-to-ceiling cabinetry in front.
This means the usual 600mm depth of wardrobe space will be halved.
Then the agent says,
"Hey, if you ever want to turn this into a fourth bedroom, easy pie."
Knock out that wall... Easy pie.
Bob's your bloody uncle. I love easy pie.
Well, let's dissect this easy pie.
Whoever buys this house will have to rip out the forced wall
to install proper wardrobes,
which will still have a clunking big wastepipe running through them.
Doesn't sound like a tasty pie to me.
Alright, boys. Let's go.
Are you OK? I'm gonna get a Lite n' Easy.
Over at McCafe, Liberty and Eliza are about to get a much-needed boost
after feeling the sting of the judges' biting critique
of their studio.
So, I was obviously, yeah, super down in my confidence levels
and questioning everything, so I had a consult with Deb from Freedom.
She's their interior designer.
And she basically just talked me through how we can hone our styles.
So have we got a photo of... What we did?
..the room that broke your heart? Yeah.
(LAUGHS) Alright.
So you've got your gold tapware, gold coming from the ceiling
and then you've got your gold in your Nessa tables.
Mm-hm. It's good.
It's just honing it.
Deb flagged that maturity for us is a big thing.
So that was the bedhead that I purchased but, like...
Take it back 'cause...
(LAUGHS) ..we're more mature than that.
OK. OK?
So, maturity but keeping your quirk.
So that's obviously what you two have,
is you want to have the luxe with your quirk.
Yeah.
Some big pieces of photography would be amazing. Yeah. OK.
So I found some beautiful pieces
I'm gonna start with in my guest room this week.
It connects with the blue, it connects with, like, the terracotta
that we've got in the room.
I love that. Beautiful.
We just need to marry it all together. Yes.
It's just so when you're going room to room...
It all flows. Yeah.
So that's made me feel better.
Like, so many of the things that I flagged with her,
she was, like, "Great, great, great."
It's just how you, like, put it all together.
After today, I had that help and now I feel like I'm back again,
so, like, it's worth asking for the help
and utilising the people around you.
Please save this, rewind it and play it to her again next week
when we're in the hole again.
# I'm not your friend or anything, damn, you think... #
Like Liberty and Eliza, Leah and Ash were roasted by the judges on Sunday,
coming equal last for their studio.
This is giving me real estate showroom kind of vibes.
MARTY: It's not wanting to pull me in.
LEAH: I've taken feedback from the judges really seriously this week
and I've brought back some punch.
That's very cool too.
I love these.
Looking for some occasional chairs
for our work-from-home space this week,
something that's colourful,
that has, you know, a bit of texture to it.
OK.
I think these are beautiful and I love that they swivel
and the colour is just perfect for me this week.
Wrap them up, let's go. Stick them in the van.
Perfection.
So great - my first purchase for the room
and my first purchase from you guys.
Well done, Leah.
That's the ticket.
And speaking of tickets...
Oh!
Oh, no!
I got a ticket!
Parking fine on my windscreen. 92 bucks.
What?
Yeah, well, as if I can see that with the tree hanging over it.
(RIP! RIP!)
Dude, let's not tell Ash.
Ash, I think you're doing this really badly.
No, no, it's fine. Coming up...
I'll be livid if we go in the water.
(HONKS HORN)
..it's time for some fun in the cold winter sun...
SHELLEY: Oh, no, we're in!
We fell off so many times.
..for our first wet and wild challenge of the season.
(GULL CRIES)
SCOTT: Hey, Block fans.
How would you like to win $35,000 in cold hard cash
to transform your place just like our Blockheads?
Well, thanks to the folks at Truecore and Colorbond,
this fabulous prize will take your home to a whole new level.
And to win, all you have to do
is head to the Block website and enter now.
It's almost tools down for the day
and after a wet start,
the work-from-home rooms that were empty shells
are now starting to get framed up.
At house three, the cracked wall has held them up
as they needed to find a bricklayer to re-brick the wall.
So, Brett has decided to head to Aldi
to grab some nosh for a barbecue for his tradies.
Sea Salt Lime Sugar. That sounds good.
A little bit of this, a little bit of that...
(TYRES SCREECH) Don't hit the lady.
And in two shakes of a chicken kebab's tail,
Brett's back at the Block, ready to sizzle his sausages.
Meanwhile, Keith's been talking to engineer Doug
about Brett's crumbling brick wall.
And now this little ray of sunshine
is ready to give the barbecue king the update.
Got some good news, mate. OK.
Well, we had a brick veneer situation underneath your window.
Right.
We're gonna have a brick veneer situation above your window as well,
so even though I've got that brickwork there... Yep.
..we're gonna put the new lintel in
and we're gonna go timber frame on the inside.
So, Kristy and Brett don't have to demolish their entire brick wall
and re-brick.
Instead, the inner bricks will be removed
and replaced with timber frames and reinforced with Truecore steel
and a steel lintel will be installed
to strengthen the wall and support the roof.
This should last another 70 years.
We'll come back and check in series 89 of The Block.
So we don't have to worry about a bricklayer,
we don't have to worry about drying times
and Dan will be able to do it himself.
He's gonna be very excited. I think he'll be happy.
I didn't even understand what anyone was talking about
because my head was just blown apart. (LAUGHS)
So I just looked at Dan our builder and he smiled
and I thought that must've been good.
And I just got cooking.
(MEN LAUGH)
Held a barbecue as, yeah, a bit of a thankyou to the guys
for how hard they work.
It's always a good thing to have them around,
just an opportunity to have everyone stop and have a bit of a chat
and take their mind off the terrible room that we've got.
You've outdone yourself here.
Keith is doing his last-minute subfloor inspections
so the Blockheads can insulate.
The guys got a framing inspection done
and we didn't have enough subfloor clearance.
But we need 450mm between bearer and soil, which you haven't got,
just so you have to dig down next to the footing, get rid of that...
Yep.
Then I'll come back, yeah? Yep.
Righto. No worries, mate.
We were told this at 5:30. Keith goes home at 6:00pm. 6:00.
Don't want to give us a hand with the shovel? (LAUGHS)
No.
Better get your back into it, fellas.
Cue '80s montage music.
# You put the boom-boom into my heart... #
There was, like, four people on shovels, three people on buckets.
MAN: A couple of buckets.
# Jitterbug into my brain Yeah, yeah
# It goes a-bang, bang, bang till my feet do the same... #
There were buckets outside of our window just flying out...
My clock says 5:59. Oh!
We got there.
Yep. All good, guys.
Thanks, Keith. You can insulate.
Thank you. Thanks, mate.
Well done, boys.
Now, I reckon this should've happened yesterday, guys.
I really do.
House one can now get on with insulating their floors.
And after delays with subfloors, broken bricks and rain,
houses two and three have finally got their floors down.
I mean, Rob's, like, "Oh, I reckon we'll get there by, like, 2:00"
and we actually had our frame inspection by 2:15.
Oh... So he was pretty on.
And to have that floor down, though, is still a win.
KRISTY: It's huge.
And, yeah, sheets will go up quick tomorrow.
We will catch up.
With everyone almost back on track,
looks like nothing can dampen our Blockheads' good spirits.
(LAUGHS) MAN: That was a challenge.
It was only part...
(CRACKING) Guys, what was that?
That was the ceiling going.
GIAN: No way.
We hear this large bang
and we didn't know whether, you know,
a window had shattered in our house,
but it was actually the ceiling coming down.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
That's... (BLEEP). What the (BLEEP)!
So scary.
BRETT: The water was building up on the gyprock ceilings
and it's just obviously creating a hazard there
that they can fall at any point.
It was wet, heavy gyprock.
LEAH: Oooh. That actually sounded like a landslide.
It did. OK.
(BIRDSONG)
LESLIE: So we got up this morning...
Getting ready to head out for our pre-start...
(LAUGHS)
And then, lo and behold, there's two mannequins outside our bedroom door.
(LAUGHS)
"Top of the morning to you."
"What a beautiful day for a seaside..."
What's that word? Sojourn?
I don't know what that means.
For a seaside sojourn.
I hope it means, like, lying down and drinking.
"Bang on these bathers and head to the Brighton Baths."
It's our first challenge of The Block.
KYLE: Yeah. Are you excited?
I am. I don't actually have to put the bathers on, though, do I?
ELIZA: I'm categorically not getting in my bathers, just FYI.
It was quite creepy undressing the mannequins.
KYLE: Oh, a bit of privacy, please.
Can you take the pants off as well?
(LAUGHS) Yeah, how do you do it?
I think... I think...
I hope that's not, like, an indication of us later.
Take me to the baths.
We arrived at Brighton Bath and we immediately saw five blocks,
which was a bit weird,
five paddleboards and five flags at the end of the bath.
Don't like water,
don't like activities of a physical nature together.
They create a paddleboard and the paddleboard was in front of us.
(LAUGHS) What are we doing?
Oh, please tell me the boats are involved.
Oh...
Oh, it's Scotty Hasselhoff!
(LAUGHTER)
# I'll be there # I'll be ready... #
(MUSIC WARPS) (WARPED LAUGHTER)
# I won't let you out of my sight. #
(BOTH LAUGH)
It's gonna be a fun day.
Well, welcome, gang. Don't you look terrific!
SHELLEY: Yes, I'm loving the swimmies, I have to say. (LAUGHS)
I would've worn this anyway. Yeah.
I like the fit. Very fugly, very saggy.
I managed to cover every orifice and limb
because I am not tanned or shaved or waxed
and we can't allow people to see that.
Blockheads, welcome to your very first challenge day.
(CONTESTANTS CHEER AND APPLAUD)
It will be worth your while.
Today's winner of the challenge will take home 5,000 bucks cash.
Oooh. Nice.
Something I prepared earlier. Be very gentle.
CONTESTANTS: Oh! Oh!
That's right. 5,000 bucks. Wow.
Plus a bonus-point gnome.
And considering some of you have been winning rooms by just half a point,
this little bloke could come in very handy this Sunday night.
Oh, the gnome is where the value is. Like, that gnome is...
Yeah, you're playing for the gnome. ..is super valuable.
BRETT: When I win a gnome this season,
I'm going to use it as trade bait.
Leah would 100% buy it for anything.
Your challenge today is to create a sand sculpture
as magnificent as my little gnome right here.
Sand sculpting is one of our favourite hobbies
outside of The Block.
(LAUGHS) Yeah.
(LAUGHS) No.
On the beach are five crates,
each containing one tonne of builders' sand
and a blueprint for a beautiful sand sculpting design.
And it's a good thing that you are wearing your bathers
because to decide which design you get,
we're gonna have ourselves a little paddleboard race.
Cool. Oh, yes. Oh, no.
And just to be clear,
both members of each team have to get on the paddleboard.
(LAUGHTER) At the same time.
Oh, no.
Paddle out to the five buoys that we have at the back of the sea baths
and each buoy has a flag on it with a design.
STEPH: OK.
We have an octopus, a shark, a seahorse, a turtle and a clownfish.
You paddle out, you grab the design you wish to do
and then you paddle back.
It's so simple. Oh, yeah.
(CONTESTANTS LAUGH)
You will get three hours to create your design.
Oh... Three hours!
And the team that does the best sand sculpture will win the 5,000 bucks
and me old mate, the bonus-point gnome.
Good luck staying dry, knuckleheads.
(LAUGHTER) Suit up! Let's go!
I think octopus could be a good one and turtle, so I think those two.
You reckon? Yeah. Yeah.
GIAN: The easiest will be the turtle.
We hope to get the turtle maybe.
Turtle will be the target.
I'll be livid if we go in the water, though.
Yeah. Livid.
It won't be a good vibe.
(GULL CRIES)
('CHAMELEON' BY PNAU PLAYS)
SCOTT: Today, our Blockheads are off to a wet start
with their first challenge.
So, the challenge today is to make a sand sculpture.
Five grand cash and the gnome.
LIBERTY: We had to paddle out to five buoys
and pick the sea creature that we wanted to make.
We wanted the turtle.
The goal was to get the turtle.
The turtle was probably gonna be the easiest.
WOMAN: Good luck, everyone. CONTESTANTS: Good luck.
SHELLEY: On your marks. Do we pick it up?
Grab your paddles.
(BLOWS HOOTER)
(CONTESTANTS YELP)
Oh, my days.
It's very cold. This way!
On, on, on! I'm driving!
Being us, we wanted to get out there first and have options.
Look at Gian and Steph. Oooh. OK.
I like that technique. Look at them go!
That's a good idea. And Gian was, like...
Is that how you were doing it?
PRODUCER: And what were you doing while you were doing this?
She was...
ASH: Don't paddle. LEAH: Just (BLEEP) go, mate!
Teams are zooming past us. We do not have this.
We literally got from here to that wall, like, two to three metres,
and Leah's off.
Losing...
Oh! Oh, no, we're in! We're in!
(LAUGHS) OK.
We fell off so many times.
My eyes are stinging. And I'm, like, "I can't see! I can't see..."
Quick, there's the turtle. Go left, go left.
SHELLEY: Gian and Steph are there.
They are about to grab what looks like...
We've got that. No, she's gone past.
She's gone past that one. The turtle.
They're going for the turtle. She had the flag.
And we got the turtle. We got the turtle.
We thought it was gonna be the best.
Now they've got to turn around and head on back.
Is anyone else even close? The girls are there.
We wanted the turtle. We did not get that.
Wait, what's that one? Do you want an octopus?
Do we want the octopus?
(BLEEP) go back, go back! Go back, go back! Oh...
Liberty's in the water...in the water, pulling the board backwards.
KYLE: Where are we going? LESLIE: It doesn't matter.
Go the clownfish?
What's that one over there? I don't know.
Oh... (BLEEP).
It was like ice-skating.
You get the momentum going
but when you've got to stop to, like, pick a flag up,
it becomes very difficult. (LAUGHS)
(WOMAN YELPS) SHELLEY: No, they didn't.
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
It appears as though they're in trouble.
(LAUGHS) Do we have to get in? Oh, hang on.
Over to the right. They're both in the water.
We have other teams also in the water.
It's carnage out there, Shell. It's a hell of a day at sea.
LEAH: (SCREAMS) Wait, I'm gonna go get it. I need to go get one.
Get it?
Here they come. Alright. Heading back. Heading back to shore.
We'll get it. We'll get it.
Oh...
Leah literally got in and Leah was, like, "Which flag do you want?"
and I was, like, "There's only one left.
"Like, did you notice everyone's gone?"
Five strokes back into heading back to the beach
and everyone was pulling their boards on the sand.
Steph and Gian, first back to the beach.
(LAUGHS) Yew!
(APPLAUSE)
Yeah. Go, Brisbane. It was a bit embarrassing.
Go, Brisbane. Clearly not surfers.
Hold your flags up, wave them in the air, please.
WOMAN: Yew!
At the end of our wet and wild adventure,
Steph and Gian are first and have grabbed the coveted turtle.
Eliza and Liberty have wrangled the octopus,
Brett and Kristy have nabbed the shark.
Kyle and Leslie got the clownfish
and lucky last,
Leah and Ash have the seahorse.
Our Blockheads are out of the drink
and ready to get some quick sand sculpting tips from the experts,
Peter and Caleb from Sandstorm Events.
Everybody's been given all brand-new tools.
What is tool we use for when we're sculpting
is basically just for blocking out.
Like this.
It's hard when you think about it's like a block of sand
and then you've got to 3-D it into this thing.
There's a series of all these little palette knives,
really good for your smaller details.
So do we have to do this actual thing or can we take...
No, no. ..creative licence?
You have to do an octopus
but it doesn't have to be exactly the same as this. OK.
I'm actually excited to see what you guys can turn out.
I bet you are. So are we.
Well, yeah, based on how yesterday finished
with just shovelling sand out windows...
Mmm. That win's ours. It's ours, baby.
OK. Start sculpting! Go!
Whoo!
Looks nice. Does it?
Yep.
There you go. Argh...
Oh... Oh, look... Oh, strike me.
ELIZA: Our flag had an octopus on it
and our piece of paper we were given had a...
Penis squid. ..penis squid on it.
That doesn't even look like anything.
So we decided to run with a more octopus look than a penis squid.
Eliza and Liberty are carving out a resting octopus
with sprawling tentacles cascading onto the sea bed.
The octopus is quite appropriate for you girls because you are...
Why?
You've got your arms all over those tradies back at site, haven't you?
No, we've been trying... (LAUGHS)
We've been pushed away left, right and centre. That's right.
Everyone just says they're in a relationship
but I think they're lying. (LAUGHS)
I actually like the idea of doing a sandcastle.
I'm, like, semi a little bit sort of artistic, creative.
But, Jesus, different level, isn't it?
Mmm. Different size...
What's that called? Different scale. Scale.
That looks like a pig's nose.
(LAUGHS) You just wait.
ASH: I didn't know how we were really gonna attack this one
because Leah's actually pretty good at art.
Oh. OK. That's looking... I think that's looking a bit better, Ash.
She did the drawing out of it... Yeah.
..and I chipped away with everything
and the plan sort of just started coming together. Yeah.
And I was, like, "It's looking pretty good."
Look at that. There's a seahorse happening here.
Fooled you. Do you think it looks like a seahorse?
It does look like a seahorse.
Leah and Ash want to make a splash
with their sculpted seahorse moving through a bed of reeds.
This is fascinating
'cause it's the first time we've really seen the couples
working in such a micro space. Mmm.
I mean, when they're in their rooms or another big challenges,
one's away and one's left behind or whatever it is,
but this is where we get to see
the intricacies of each couple's relationship.
This will be actually quite funny.
LEAH: No, Ash, I think you're doing this really badly.
No, no, it's fine. It must go...
You need a fat bottom.
It's the delicateness of it. It's not delicate!
Look how fat that gnome is!
Coming up... Look at this!
Stop. Stop.
Our fin fell off.
(GASPS) Our head fell off. Head fell off. (GASPS)
And later, get ready to be shellshocked
by some jaw-dropping sculptures.
This is like, I think, incredible... Expert.
Don't touch it. I'm just gonna...
That's much better. Argh!
That's really much better.
(GULLS CRY)
# You want to dance
# You don't know how to get it on the floor #
LESLIE: Our challenge is to make a sand sculpture.
Five grand would be great
but the gnome itself would be amazing.
LESLIE: There's no tactic going into the sculpting.
I think it's very much like a work it out on the fly kind of challenge.
Kyle and Leslie's sandy spectacle
will feature a clownfish nestled in an 'anomene'...
'Anomene'... 'Anonome'...
'Anemalies'... 'Anemalematies'...
(LAUGHS)
That's where Nemo lives. The anemone. In the little...
It's like a sea plant.
This is what we're trying to...
Look, you're halfway there. You've got your wreaths happening...
(LAUGHS) It's done.
That's great. That's great. And walk away. Walk away.
Thanks. I'll have the gnome now, thanks. Quit while you're ahead.
Something like that? Yep.
So we've got to cut all of this out. I reckon...
Brett's the more creative one and he's the more artistic one,
so it was all Brett.
Brett and Kristy are putting their sandy skills to the test
with a fearsome shark coming out of the dark weavy depths.
Oh, the sun's coming out. I like that too.
Delicious.
STEPH: We'll do coral all the way around.
GIAN: What about around here? At the back.
Maybe it's gonna sit on a rock.
GIAN: The goal was to get the turtle.
And we got the turtle. We got the turtle.
Because we thought it was gonna be the best. And it was not the best.
It was not the best. It was the hardest.
Do you not understand that it's gotta be on an angle?
I've gotta redraw it.
Steph and Gian are hoping for an "Oh, Shell, yeah" from the judges
with their majestic turtle lazing on a rock surrounded by coral.
I mean, like, you could've done something super simple
and then just created a turtle on a flat bed.
But we didn't need to.
We needed to make it harder, make it on a 45-degree angle,
make it come out, so it was very fun.
MAN: Oooh, yeah. Turtle's coming well.
STEPH: Getting there. Very nice.
Slowly but surely.
SHELLEY: You've got two hours to go!
Who's feeling confident? WOMAN: No-one.
MAN: No-one. (LAUGHTER)
No-one. Anyone out there?
KRISTY: It's a bit gappy. BRETT: Yeah, knocked a tooth out.
I wouldn't really say we're confident, no.
There seems to be some pretty impressive sculptures happening.
ELIZA: This is our octopus, Lib.
(LAUGHS)
Yeah, so we're adding some sand to our structure
to make some tentacles, like, 3-D tentacles.
And then we're hoping to, like, build it out here.
GIAN: Girls, that's looking good. STEPH: Great, Lib. Great!
Wow, everyone.
LEAH: It was coming together so well
and then we started to get some really good 3-D shape
and Ash was, like, "Let's go all the way through.
"Let's take this to another dimension."
Ash is just contemplating...
He wants to make that see-through but I don't think...
Whoa! I think, if anything, make that one see-through.
Risky business! Way too risky.
And Leah's, like, "No, no, no."
And then, like, we didn't like it for a few minutes.
Babe, look at this! Stop. Stop.
Nothing happened. Stop.
Shh.
You could fit, like, your whole hand pretty much through this thing.
The through-ey. We call it 'through-ey'.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYS)
Organic.
But we're doing that.
(WHISTLE BLOWS) You're not gonna believe this.
What can you see?
I've just spotted a treasure chest... Where?
..floating out the back of the baths...
No! ..with trinkets in it!
CONTESTANTS: Go!
Scotty and Shelley announced that, "Oh, look, there's a treasure chest
"full of props to decorate your sculpture,"
so one person from each team could go back on the board.
Paddle like the wind!
ASH: Go, Leah!
I was, like, "Ash, you actually ruined the race for us
"at the beginning.
"I've got this." Did not.
# It ain't me... #
Well, you wouldn't believe, I was up there in line with Gian.
Gian's got there. Oh...
I got there first. Got the crown.
But then, all the paddleboards were too big
around this little treasure chest
and everybody's limbs and paddles are going everywhere.
I was in the water.
Most of the things were just, like, bobbing up and down.
LEAH: Loaded my bag up, shovelling it in.
Then what did you do, babe?
As I was at the treasure chest, I had accidentally manoeuvred myself
and I was now sitting backwards on the board.
Scotty goes... Leah is paddling backwards.
(LAUGHTER)
Why is she doing that? I don't know.
Go, Leah!
(LAUGHS) I've got heaps of stuff.
STEPH: A crown? 'Cause you won?
I don't know, they said first in, best dressed and I thought...
SHELLEY: 45 minutes to go! (LAUGHS)
I feel like I'm gonna run out of time.
(GASPS) No!
It was looking so good.
Here.
Our fin fell off...
(GASPS) STEPH AND GIAN: Our head fell off.
GIAN: Oh...
Oh! Oh, no!
It was gonna look good. It was gonna be good.
But as soon as we lost the gravity element of one leg
and then the head, we knew it was not going back.
God, I hate gravity.
Got some Gorilla Glue? Far out.
(BLOWS WHISTLE) Two minutes!
ELIZA: Two minutes, Lib.
What else do we need to do?
This is your Coco Chanel moment. Take one thing off.
Have you overcooked it?
I might be talking to you, Leah, from what I can see. (LAUGHS)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
(WHISTLE BLOWS) Sand tools down!
You did it, old man.
STEPH: You guys look amazing!
BRETT: Couldn't get as far in as I wanted
but at least I'm gonna be able to get a head in there if I can.
Oh, yeah, you can get an echo.
I think that counts.
That counts.
(GULLS CRY)
# Run with the sun... #
SCOTT: The Blockheads have finished their 'sand-sational' sculptures
and expert sculptors Peter and Caleb from Sandstorm Events
are here to judge their masterpieces.
OK, fellas. Let's do it, boys.
Here we go. Number one.
KYLE: Yeah, I'm really happy with what we've produced
for our sandcastle challenge today.
We made a clownfish coming out of the anemone, where he lives.
PRODUCER: What's he coming out of? Anemone.
Yeah, anemone. An anemone.
Anemone. Anemone.
MAN: I do like it. It's really good.
It's obvious straight away that you can tell what it is,
which is a big plus.
Yeah, right. Not bad with the seaweed.
They've done a good job there, haven't they?
They've added lots of detail... Yeah.
..which is a big positive.
Maybe not enough detail on the fish itself.
They've done a good job around the top
but they haven't really finished off around the bottom.
It would've been nice to have that continuation.
To have a finished product in three hours
when they've never even considered doing this before is a great start.
Fantastic. OK. Great start on your judging too.
Well done, boys. Righto. Come on.
OK, boys. The seahorse.
LEAH: We built... ASH: We got the unicorn.
Unicorn? No, the seahorse. Seahorse.
And we've made the seahorse coming up, like, standing up with, like,
wreaths or reeds all around it.
Yeah.
And we did a through-ey thing. Yeah, it goes see-through.
Now, this is, like... I think incredible.
This is expert!
MAN: They've done a really good job
in their level of difficulty with the sand,
really pushing it to its limits.
Thankfully, as you can see, they haven't had any major collapses,
which is one thing we're always a bit wary of,
especially when you do a big cut-through like that.
MAN: I like the composition.
I think they've done a really good job of just making the focus
on the element that they were supposed to do.
Let's go to the next one.
The girls.
LIBERTY: Ours isn't as smooth as the rest
but I feel like ours is creative
in that we've spread our tentacles down onto the floor.
I feel very excellent about what we've created.
I'm proud of us. Aren't you?
Yes, but we were also proud of ourselves
after the last room reveal... Yeah. ..and look what happened.
(LAUGHS)
I'm very impressed with this one, Shell.
Yeah, well, I love the fact
that it's actually cascading down into the sand.
It's almost like it's on the move.
I think, composition-wise, it's actually been very creative.
The perspective's right. The sizing matches.
By what they've focused on there,
maybe they haven't fully gone around the block itself.
Yeah. Jeez, you blokes are tough.
They are, yeah. This is unbelievable!
(LAUGHS) Come on.
STEPH: Oh, we met the brief. GIAN: We definitely did a turtle.
We met the brief. We did a turtle.
But we don't think the turtle is good enough.
Alright. Right, so...
The turtle.
It's a dead turtle on a rock.
Unfortunately, it's a very old turtle and it just died about an hour ago.
(SHELLEY AND SCOTT LAUGH)
Penny for your thoughts, Caleb?
Oooh, I did see that they had a couple of collapses,
which just shows how adventurous they were really being
with the sand, really cutting in,
trying to make it pop out as much as possible from the background.
Unfortunately, yeah, when you push it that far,
yeah, those things do happen with the sand.
Yeah.
Alright. Now, the sharky.
BRETT: Sand sculpting, we went alright.
I think it did represent a shark quite well.
He was a big... He was a healthy shark.
He was a big fat boy. KRISTY: He was a big boy.
It did have an opening you could fit your head in, though.
That was a massive part to me. Mmm.
I thought the judges would enjoy putting their head in there.
Yeah, so what do you make of our shark coming at us
out of the kelp forest?
The finish is actually really good.
Straight away, the difficulty is very, very good.
They've tried to add a lot of depth to it. Mm-hm.
They haven't nailed the perspective,
getting the full length of the body in.
Yes. It's a very squashed shark.
You're saying about perspective.
I think what they wanted me to do to give you more perspective
is to do this... Don't touch it.
I'm not gonna touch it. Oh, good.
I'm just gonna... That's much better.
Argh! That's really much better.
That's a great view from here too, by the way. (LAUGHS)
Now, does that look like the shark was longer because I was coming out?
Yeah. I really did hit it.
And it gave it scale.
# Alright... #
('HOWLIN' FOR YOU BY THE BLACK KEYS PLAYS)
G'day, g'day.
I want to kick off by saying firstly thank you to all of you.
We have done so many challenges over the years.
Hundreds.
But I have to say, we are incredibly impressed
not only with what you've delivered today
but just how you took on the challenge
with so much gusto and fun.
You're inspiring.
(APPLAUSE)
But, of course, only one person takes home the prize and the money
and the gnome.
We want to win this one really badly. So bad.
We aren't, like, winning any rooms
and we're probably not gonna win any rooms.
The only thing we're gonna win is challenges,
so we really, really, really need to win this time.
Boys, what did you think?
Well, obviously, guys, congratulations.
We are blown away
with the sculptures you guys have produced today.
LEAH: The biggest competition, potentially the girls.
I like how they took out the tentacles.
But did they go see-through?
I'm hoping the through-ey is gonna get us through-ey...
(LAUGHS) ..for the winn-ey.
And the winner is...
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
..the seahorse.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
It was the through-ey!
Yay!
From our point of view, as professional sculptors,
it was really the technical difficulty of what you did
by creating the cut-through...
Yeah, it wasn't actually in the plan but Leah was, like, "I'm through!"
(LAUGHTER) Yes.
So good. Yay! Stoked.
This is amazing. The five grand, we really needed.
Yep.
But that gnome, that's just a game-changer.
It's been so tight Sunday nights, like, judging and that
and that extra point will really come in handy.
Yeah. Just don't know when to play it.
(APPLAUSE) Well, congratulations.
$5,000 cash. But wait...
And more importantly, the gnome. Oh, the gnome.
Plus one on Sunday night. Oh, thank god.
Can we smash something? Can we run into them?
MAN: Don't punch, just push.
SHELLEY: Oh, ladies, ladies...
(LAUGHTER)
Jump on top of it!
Anyway, it was a nice thought.
Right, get those ridiculous clothes off and get back to the Block.
Time to go. Get out of here. WOMAN: Thanks, guys.
Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv
It's a really eerie feeling...
(THUNDER CRACKLES) with the storm brewing.
It's like the end of the world.
Just waiting for a cow to fly by.
We warned them...
10 to 20 ml of rain. over...
You've seen how much is coming tomorrow yeah? The rain?
and over again.
We don't want rain coming through those ceilings.
But these Blockheads just wouldn't listen.
She'll be right.
Oh no she won't.
Batten down the hatches,
wild Wednesday is coming.
Haven't seen anything like it in my whole life.