House Rules

There’s usually some fake setups in every episode but they are not always obvious. Tonight there were two blatant setups in Canberra that made no sense when the contestants were supposedly rushing to get back to Candelo.

The first showed one of the cars driving past Reconciliation Place on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, an area that has no shops and driving down that road is seriously going out of your way.

The second was two contestants getting petrol at a Caltex service station. It was like watching a scene out of a scripted drama with multiple angles around the car at the pump and inside paying for the fuel. It seemed like there were about five cameras, but there were probably only one or two which means it would have taken some time to shoot that scene at the service station.

Oh, and there was one more. Just to add to the ‘drama’, the last car from Canberra just happened to arrive in Candelo with a minute to spare.

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Caltex are listed in the credits as having a paid agreement with the show which explains why it looked like an advert for them rather than just a quick stop to get petrol.

My biggest gripe with The Block was always the product placement, but this year House Rules seems to have way more than it used to. Open a cupboard, look under a bench and you’ll see sneaky advertising stickers everywhere. I know they need sponsors so they can pay for the renovations but these placements are so infuriating.

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For the first time, the teams’ total running scores were revealed to them in the studio for the first time, and before the final interior renovation. In the past five seasons, teams were only told of their final positions at the end of all interior renovations by Joh but without the scores revealed. You had to go to Wikipedia to find their respective cumulative scores.
Based on a promo, the three judges would be appearing in the studio in Sunday’s episode to personally give feedback and score to each team.
I guess Joh revealed the running scores this time because the bottom two teams (Leigh & Kristie and Kim & Michelle) were only separated by one point. They both came out losers in the renovation of Chiara and David’s house. They could not come to a deal on sharing the same wallpaper for the adjoining lounge and dining rooms, so there was no flow in decorations, which the judges and homeowners dislike. Toad and Mandy won the reno and would go into the next round with confidence.
The renovation of Todd and Mandy’s home was done in the first week of March (when two contestants looked up the Hotels Combined app to book a hotel room in Canberra to stay overnight, I noticed check in date of March 5 and check out date of March 6). Remember the Sydney house the teams renovated at the start of the season was auctioned on March 19. So while one team might be eliminated at the end of interior renovations, that team would reunite with the other six teams to attend the auction.

And pretend as if they were still in the running to win.

TV Week has revealed which team is first to get booted off the show thus spoiling tomorrow night’s elimination show.

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.

As everyone told you at the time.

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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).

That means this week’s backyard battles would be at Toad and Mandy’s Candelo home and Chiara and David’s Perth home.

Are Kim and Michelle auditioning for Home & Away?

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?

You mean House Rules Grand Final?

There is no way Seven will show House Rules grand final on July 17 AFTER the Home and Away special.

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.

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Wow

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.

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The show tweeted the mystery question back in April. So, did we find out which team it was?

That’s what I thought. The obvious false relationship status on a previous series isn’t evident in this series.

Is it? Who?