This was the closest elimination I have ever seen in the six seasons of House Rules. After seven rounds of interior renovations, it came down to the bonus room at Toad and Mandy’s home to decide which team would be eliminated. Chiara and David successfully persuaded Mel and Dave to give the bonus room to Kim and Michelle, hoping the mother and daughter duo would give it a proper overhaul. But David’s slip of the tongue during bonus room allocation raised Kristie’s suspicion, and she eventually found out the bonus room was an elaborate plan to send herself and her husband out.
The homeowners liked some of the elements of the bonus room but reckoned the statement piece (firewood rack) was too big for the room. In the end they gave a pass to Kim and Michelle, meaning Kim and Michelle beat Leigh and Kristie by five points at the end of this round, and by four points after seven renovations were completed.
Toad and Mandy were generous in giving Josh and Brandon’s zone (the only zone to have adjoining rooms - bathroom, boot room and hallway) a 10 while the judges only gave the brothers two 5s and a 6. Conversely, Mel and Dave’s zone earned perfect 10s from the judges but only a 9 from homeowners due to lack of doors on the wardrobe in their daughter Layla’s bedroom.
My assumption was wrong. During last night’s episode, Joh mentioned the prizemoney before the judges appeared to provide feedback and scores to each team, meaning most of last night and tonight’s episode were filmed after the auction.
The backyard renovation round begins tomorrow night (Tuesday). According to promo, the first two houses to get the backyards overhauled belonged to Chiara & David and Josh & Brandon. Given Chiara & David’s home and Mel & Dave’s home already have existing swimming pools in the backyard, it looks like the other four homes would also get a pre-fabricated pool each.
The backyard battles start today and teams would renovate backyards of two homes at a time, meaning this round will go for three rounds, and will overlap with first two weeks of Australian Ninja Warrior. First homes to have the yards renovated were both in Queensland: Josh and Brandon (Maryborough) and Mel and Dave (Hope Island).
Monday July 16 is the end of the third round of backyard renovations and three teams would be eliminated, then House Rules takes a break for this special. Does Seven think July 17 is the night of MasterChef grand final?
According to a sneak peek shown tonight, the three remaining teams would renovate a house belonging to Chelsea and her daughter Koa who just turned one. Chelsea and her husband Wayde originally auditioned to compete on the show, but just days after receiving a letter from Seven telling the couple their application was successful, Wayde fell from a rock ledge while fishing and died. The promo says Wayde’s final wish would come true as the couple’s house received a makeover.
I know these shows have a tendency to hype up the melodrama but this final renovation looks like it’s going to be a real tearjerker. I nearly cried watching the advert!
Seven really stretching this series out, with episode 38 tonight. Season 3 had the previous highest episode count of 39. Last year there were 35 episodes.
After two rounds of backyard transformations, the team scores were:
Jess and Jared: 51/80
Kim and Michelle: 51/80
Josh and Brandon: 31/40
Mel and Dave: 30/40
Chiara and David: 27/40
Toad and Mandy: 25/40
Jess and Jared and Kim and Michelle are looking down the barrel. Both teams would be eliminated if Josh and Brandon got the combined score of 21 or more from judges and homeowners in the final round of renos. If Toad and Mandy were to survive elimination, their combined score not only had to be 27 or higher, it also had to be three points higher than Chiara and David’s.
