With every team trying to line up fixed cabinetry, stone and electrics, the plasterboard mistake was more than an annoying re-do. It added another job to a week that was already giving everyone very little room to move.
It was a big day for House 2, although not always in the way Chantel and Wyatt might have hoped.
Dishesgate Still Has Legs
The shared-house mess from the night before was still bubbling away when the teams woke up. Chantel and Wyatt had left after dinner for the gym, leaving the others to clean up, and their dishes were apparently still making their presence felt at breakfast.
Jolene was not impressed, while Chantel offered an apology for the oatmeal bowls that had spent rather too long in the sink. "I'm sorry to whoever's been washing up my oatmeal bowls," she said, which did not appear to settle the issue for Jolene.
It was not exactly a huge renovation scandal, but Kitchen Week had barely started and the domestic politics were already doing laps. Leaving early for the gym was becoming a pattern, and the housemates were clearly keeping score.
House 2 Finds A Workaround
On site, Wyatt hit a more practical obstacle when House 2's cabinetry arrived. Plasterboard appeared to be swallowing the storage space they had been warned to keep clear, leaving him convinced there was no quick fix.
House 2 may have avoided the wider plasterboard blunder, but they were hardly cruising. The cabinetry still needed somewhere to go, and the hold-up was enough to send Wyatt's mood south before Chantel got involved.
Chantel then shifted a few boxes and found enough room to make it work. Not the grandest renovation victory of the season, but on a site where every centimetre suddenly matters, it was a win all the same.
Kitchen Week's Plasterboard Panic
The bigger problem was waiting for everyone else. Every team except House 2 had used the wrong plasterboard behind the stone splashbacks, which meant pulling it out and starting that part again.
It was a particularly painful discovery because the material was sitting behind a major kitchen feature, so it had to be corrected before the stone splashbacks could properly go in. House 2's earlier storage hassle suddenly looked like the smaller problem.
Jolene returned from a Melbourne shopping run just in time to discover the site-wide correction. The teams had to absorb another job before the rooms could properly take shape, which is not the kind of Kitchen Week surprise anyone puts on a mood board.
The Gym Argument Gets A Sequel
That night, former Block teams Robby and Mat and Sonny and Alicia dropped by the share house ahead of the next challenge. The visit began as a friendly catch-up and a teaser for what was coming, but Chantel and Wyatt soon made it clear they were keen to leave for the gym.
Mat took issue with the rush, and the exchange became the episode's main flashpoint. He felt Wyatt had been pushy, rude and disrespectful of other people's opinions, while Wyatt was still stewing the next morning. "He lost my respect," Wyatt said.
For a disagreement over leaving a social visit, it had remarkably long legs. It also put the dirty-dishes tension into sharper focus, because neither side seemed especially interested in giving the other the benefit of the doubt.
When the challenge finally arrived, it involved a penalty shootout on ice while the Blockheads rolled around in zorbs. Adam and Jolene came through to claim the $10,000 prize and trophy, a welcome bit of straightforward good news after the splashback update and the share-house stoush.
House 5 Has A Backlit Problem
Rick and Tayla had a separate headache in House 5, where their backlit splashback plan had not made it to site manager Aidan. Tayla had not sent through the specifications, which left Rick worried the plan could fall over while Tayla seemed considerably less rattled by the timing.
The design ambition was still there, but the paperwork had not caught up. With the other houses already stripping out incorrect plasterboard, it was a bad time for any kitchen detail to be floating around without a clear set of instructions.
Elsewhere, Chantel and Wyatt left site early again, which surprised their rivals. Chantel explained that she wants to build a more secure future for her children and buy them a house. Wyatt's answer was more unexpected: he said, "A profile lift would absolutely help the acting career," if he decides to seriously pursue acting.
It was a surprisingly candid finish to a day that began with dirty dishes, detoured through an ice rink, and ended with Kitchen Week getting even more complicated. Scott Cam and Shelley are due for walkarounds next, so the teams will not have long to admire Adam and Jolene's trophy.
The Block continues tonight at 7.30pm on Nine and 9Now.
