The biggest sting is that this is no ordinary kitchen week. The winning team will collect $30,000 in gold, $60,000 worth of Dekton tiles for elsewhere in their house and a serious Auction Day advantage. Suddenly, every borrowed tradie and late-night walkaround feels a little more loaded.

The Heat Is On Before Site

Courtney and Sev woke up feeling as though someone had turned the share house into a sauna. Their suspicion landed on Tayla, who is famously more comfortable when the temperature is up.

Sev confronted her, Tayla denied it, and the issue might have disappeared if it had not turned out that Tayla had indeed adjusted the heating. It was a fairly perfect opening for an episode in which nobody trusted anyone to leave a switch, a ceiling or a kitchen alone.

House 5's Ceiling Goes Back To Square One

Rick and Tayla were still trying to recover from the plastering mess that began in the previous night's Kitchen Week chaos. Courtney and Sev's plasterers had helped House 5 get enough work done for cabinetry, but they had to return to their own house.

With the kitchen ceiling still unfinished, Rick and his build team took matters into their own hands and began putting the plaster sheets up. G-Mac soon stopped them because the insulation inspection had not been completed, meaning the fresh work had to come down before it could go back up properly. That is a particularly painful kind of progress when a kitchen reveal is bearing down.

There was at least one small reset for Tayla. Shelley Craft took her out for a styling lesson after last week's rough judging, while back on site the pair's backlit stone splashback gave Scott Cam and Shelley something encouraging to talk about. House 5 needs all the good news it can get.

Everyone Is Suddenly A Snooper

Lisa and Rosco's House 3 is going hard on dark walnut cabinetry and a huge stone island, then made the call to keep a bolder statement basin in the powder room rather than play it safe. Lisa still found time to look over House 2 while Chantel was away celebrating her son's birthday and Wyatt had left site. Her verdict on their kitchen? A little beige.

Adam and Jolene were more focused on the view, turning their island bench to face it rather than following the conventional layout. Courtney, meanwhile, had reached her limit with Adam's habit of inspecting other houses for ideas. House 4's garage entry was covered and warning signs went up, which only made Adam more interested.

It was not all surveillance and side-eye for Courtney and Sev. Beacon Lighting and Shelley revealed that a light Sev designed would go into production with her name attached. She was understandably emotional, even if the rest of Kitchen Week was busy finding fresh ways to test everyone's patience.

Then The Cheating Claim Lands

By Friday evening, Rick noticed Tim from British Paints, usually there to advise the teams, with a roller in hand inside House 4's kitchen. He filmed the scene, and Tayla called it cheating because contestants are expected to complete their own painting.

The episode left it as an allegation rather than a resolved breach, but it immediately deepened the tension around House 4's tradie advantage. Courtney and Sev had already worked hard to keep rivals from peering into their plans. Now they had an accusation to deal with as well.

And then Tayla made her own late-night inspection run. While the others waited for paint to dry, she was spotted entering House 4 and climbing into House 1. Adam, Jolene, Courtney and Sev were furious, with Courtney summing up the moment neatly: 'Rats do come out at night.'

Kitchen Week is now carrying five kitchens, pantries, powder rooms and lifts towards a huge reveal, with $100,000 on the line and most of the teams watching the neighbours as closely as their own builders. Sunday night cannot come quickly enough.

The Block continues Sunday at 7.00pm on Nine and 9Now.