Episode 28 Recap – The Block contestants were sweating through Kitchen Week on Wednesday night, with heating dramas, plastering setbacks, accusations of cheating and late-night snooping erupting across the site as Scott Cam and Shelley Craft revealed a staggering $100,000 prize was riding on the looming room reveal.
With just four days remaining until reveal, the pressure was already showing before anyone had even reached the building site.
Back at the shared accommodation, Courtney and Sev woke furious after enduring a sweltering night, convinced someone had tampered with the airconditioning controls and effectively cooked them while they tried to sleep.
Suspicion quickly fell on Tayla, who is known among the contestants for feeling the cold.
Sev confronted her, but Tayla denied responsibility and, with a packed day ahead, the matter appeared to be temporarily dropped.
There was just one problem: Tayla had in fact adjusted the temperature.
“I’m convinced it was sabotage,” Sev complained.
The overnight thermostat drama proved an appropriate start to a day in which almost every team was feeling the heat.
For Rick and Tayla in House 5, the biggest concern remained their kitchen ceiling.
Their kitchen design included a backlit stone splashback they hoped would become a major feature, although the plan had already almost come unstuck after Tayla failed to provide the required specifications to Nine In Six.
Their problems had been compounded by plastering.
After discovering they were being severely overcharged by their original plasterers, Rick and Tayla had been given permission to use Courtney and Sev’s plastering team.
What began as a favour quickly became far more important to House 5’s progress.
The borrowed trades helped get enough plaster hung for the kitchen cabinetry to be installed, but Rick was left frustrated when the plasterers understandably returned their attention to House 4.
Sev made it clear where their priorities would remain.
“That’s the gamble when you approach another house’s trade,” Sev said.
“They’re going to take precedence.
Their house is going to get finished and you’re going to come second.”
With his kitchen still needing a ceiling, Rick decided to tackle the job himself.
He climbed up and began installing the plaster sheets with help from his build team, hoping to get the work moving without waiting for the plasterers to return.
It quickly became another costly setback.
G-Mac stepped in and ordered the newly installed plaster removed because the necessary insulation inspection had not been completed before the ceiling was closed.
That meant the work had to come back down before it could eventually be done again correctly.
And while the building problems continued, Tayla also had another challenge to deal with following the previous week’s judging.
After harsh criticism of her styling, Shelley Craft took Tayla away from site for lunch and a styling tutorial aimed at improving her confidence before another crucial room reveal.
Shelley walked her through some of the fundamentals of decorating and styling, with Tayla hoping to avoid another difficult judging session.
The lesson came after the previous week’s memorable styling choices, which had included an air fryer book and a pot plant placed beneath a desk.
Despite the chaos, Rick and Tayla had something to celebrate after taking out another round of Sizzle and Score, bringing their haul to 21 pots and plants.
Their kitchen was also beginning to make an impression.
During the walkaround, Scott Cam and Shelley Craft praised the backlit splashback, giving the pair some encouragement as they attempted to recover from their plastering disaster.
Elsewhere, Lisa and Rosco’s House 3 kitchen was taking shape with a markedly different look.
The couple were the only team installing dark walnut cabinetry, pairing it with an enormous five-metre stone island bench in their first-floor kitchen.
The darker palette caught the attention of Scott and Shelley, who both liked the timber profiles being used in the cabinetry.
But the kitchen was not the only decision occupying Lisa’s attention.
Their powder room presented another design dilemma, with Lisa caught between using the original statement basin they had planned or retreating to the safer style of basin they had already used in previous bathrooms.
After taking votes, the team decided to stick with the riskier option and use the larger stone basin.
There was also time for Lisa to join the growing list of contestants snooping around rival properties.
With Chantel away and Wyatt leaving the site, Lisa took advantage of the opportunity to inspect House 2’s kitchen.
She came away seemingly unconcerned by what she saw, describing the look as “all a little on the beige side”.
Lisa was also surprised that the pair could leave the property with so much work still to be completed.
In House 1, Adam and Jolene were banking on one of their home’s biggest features to help them win the week: the view.
They made the significant decision to reorientate their kitchen island bench so that it faced out towards that view, rather than following a more conventional arrangement.
The choice impressed Shelley, who believed the changes were helping the entire level come together.
For Adam and Jolene, the team they remained most wary of was Courtney and Sev.
House 4 had the considerable advantage of the $250,000 E&S appliance package, placing even more attention on their kitchen as the week moved towards judging.
But Adam’s interest in the competition was becoming a source of irritation for the neighbours.
Courtney had become increasingly frustrated by what she regarded as his habit of entering other houses to inspect designs and gather materials.
She decided more drastic measures were required.
The entrance to House 4’s garage was covered to prevent unwanted visitors — and rodents — from getting inside, while warning signs were added in an effort to keep Adam away.
“We need to stop him coming in and looking at our design, and we need to stop him stealing,” Courtney explained.
She labelled Adam a “cheeky little rat” as their increasingly playful but pointed battle over snooping continued.
Adam, however, did not sound discouraged.
“It’s like a red flag to the bull,” Adam said.
According to Scott Cam’s voiceover, there was only one house on The Block that Adam had not snooped through looking for style ideas.
While Courtney was trying to keep her rivals out, Sev received one of the biggest personal moments of her competition.
Beacon Lighting and Shelley Craft arrived to unveil the custom light Sev had designed.
The announcement went considerably further than a simple reveal, with Beacon Lighting telling Sev that her design would be put into production with her name attached to it.
Overwhelmed by the news, Sev shed a tear as Shelley celebrated the achievement.
The emotional moment provided some relief from the pressure surrounding House 4, which was increasingly being viewed as one of the teams to beat during Kitchen Week.
Over in House 2, Chantel and Wyatt had a different kind of problem.
Their kitchen was the least advanced of the five after a flooring delay the previous day pushed back the start of their kitchen installation.
The setback left the couple frustrated that they were not where they had expected to be on the schedule.
The timing was particularly difficult because Chantel was leaving the site to travel to the Gold Coast for her son’s birthday, meaning Wyatt would be left behind to keep construction moving.
Despite the delays, their greige cabinetry won approval from Shelley.
The handles did not.
The couple had been using brass finishes throughout their home, but their kitchen cabinetry had ended up with copper handles which did not match the tapware.
When Shelley questioned the choice during the walkaround, Wyatt was thrown.
He called Chantel, before turning to Kinsman for help late on a Friday afternoon in an effort to find a solution.
The mismatch also presented another challenge for Chantel’s broader design direction.
She has continued to pursue what she describes as her “old luxury” aesthetic despite previous criticism from judge Shaynna Blaze, who has questioned whether the rooms were becoming too bland or too closely linked to a Gold Coast look.
Rather than retreat from her preferred style, Chantel was leaning further into it.
She spent part of the week threading crystals onto a brass light fitting for the stairwell, dubbed a “Chantel-ier”.
Chantel was already anticipating what Shaynna might make of it.
“She’s going to hate it,” Chantel laughed.
Wyatt even compared the battle over Chantel’s taste to Yoda attempting to pull Shaynna away from the dark side.
As every team pushed towards the finish line, Scott Cam and Shelley Craft arrived for their walkarounds carrying news that dramatically raised the stakes.
Winning Kitchen Week was no longer simply about taking the room win.
A $30,000 bar of gold from Kinsman would go to the winning house and be auctioned with the property.
On top of that, Cosentino would provide the winners with $60,000 worth of Dekton to use elsewhere in their home.
Together with the regular $10,000 room prize from Chery, it meant a total of $100,000 was now riding on the week.
For a group already scrambling to complete kitchens, pantries, powder rooms and lifts, the announcement ensured the pressure intensified again.
There was particular focus on Courtney and Sev, given the pair held the E&S kitchen upgrade.
Scott noted that previous contestants with the major kitchen advantage had traditionally performed strongly during Kitchen Week, although Shelley was not prepared to suggest the same outcome was guaranteed this time.
“But this year?
I don’t know,” Shelley said.
With the kitchens finally taking shape, Kinsman was wrapping up the enormous task of installing five kitchens and pantries.
That left one of the biggest jobs still sitting in front of the contestants: painting.
And it was during painting that simmering tensions between House 4 and House 5 escalated into something far more serious.
As night fell and Rick was working at House 5, he noticed unusual activity next door.
Tim from British Paints, who usually advises contestants about painting, appeared to be holding a roller and painting inside Courtney and Sev’s House 4.
Rick immediately began filming what he was seeing.
For Tayla, the footage appeared straightforward.
“That is cheating,” Tayla declared.
The discovery was particularly significant because contestants are expected to carry out their own painting.
What had started as a dispute over borrowed plasterers now threatened to blow up into a full argument over whether House 4 had received help it should not have had.
And rather than leaving the matter there, Tayla decided to investigate further.
While some of the other contestants and trades were outside having drinks as their first coats of paint dried, Tayla began moving through the houses.
She was spotted entering House 4 before making her way up the scaffolding and into House 1.
Her covert tour did not go unnoticed.
Adam, Jolene, Courtney and Sev watched what was happening and were furious.
For Jolene, seeing someone entering their house under the cover of darkness crossed a line.
For Courtney, the irony was difficult to miss after spending the day trying to keep Adam from snooping through her own property.
“Rats do come out at night,” Courtney said.
The late-night manoeuvring capped a day in which almost every house had become preoccupied with what its rivals were doing.
Courtney and Sev were trying to stop Adam looking through their designs.
Lisa had seized her opportunity to inspect Chantel and Wyatt’s kitchen.
Rick had filmed activity inside House 4.
And Tayla had ended the evening moving from house to house in search of more evidence.
All of it came against the backdrop of what was already one of the most complicated weeks of the competition.
Unlike a standard room week, the contestants are juggling their kitchens with pantries, powder rooms and lifts, leaving multiple spaces requiring attention at the same time.
House 5 still had to recover from its ceiling and inspection problems while ensuring its backlit stone splashback delivered on its promise.
House 3 was backing its dark walnut cabinetry, huge stone island and risky powder-room basin.
House 1 had reconfigured its kitchen to capitalise on the view.
House 2 was battling lost time, mismatched finishes and Chantel’s temporary absence.
And House 4, armed with its major appliance advantage, was now facing questions about what had happened during painting.
With the $100,000 Kitchen Week prize intensifying an already fierce contest, the episode ended with the divisions between the teams becoming increasingly clear.
The fallout from the painting footage, Tayla’s nighttime snooping and the pressure of completing five ambitious kitchens now hangs over the final run to judging.
