The Block 2024 episode 36 recap: ‘Most uncomfortable room this season’ — Judges get brutal

The underdogs have finally found their groove.

Ricky and Haydn shared their first win with sisters Maddy and Charlotte, both teams wowing the judges with their creative, and potentially game changing, spaces.

While the boys’ games room tugged at the heartstrings of judges Marty Fox, Shaynna Blaze and Darren Palmer, the girls’ guest retreat (complete with separate entryway) was seen as a “massive selling point.”

Ricky and Haydn got a perfect score from Shaynna, while Charlotte and Maddy got a 10 from Marty for their efforts.

Marty also handed out a 10 to Kylie and Brad. But not the winning sort.

“It’s 10 out of 10 for the most uncomfortable room we have seen this season,” he said.

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Kylie and Brad delivered “the most uncomfortable room” of the season according to Block judges.

Darren was equally unimpressed, describing the upstairs space as “metres of useless s**t.”

From the moment the trio walked into Kylie and Brad’s mezzanine, they were bewildered.

“Why am I sitting 30cm from a glass balustrade, looking over the living area,” he pondered, easing himself down on to a brown leather couch inexplicably placed as though it was a seat in the royal box at the theatre.

While Shaynna declared the room a “peep show”.

Although Kylie had earlier admitted she hadn’t known what to do with her spaces this week and had just “thrown things in there” and hoped for the best, she was left fuming by the scathing feedback for their efforts.

Kylie and Brad’s weird office/peep show mezzanine level.

She was also seething that her Block nemesis, Charlotte and Maddy, had their plan for a separate entryway approved so late in the game.

It wasn’t just Kylie and Brad who had failed to impress this week. Courtney and Grant’s study was likened to a therapist’s office while they felt Mimi and Kristian’s was more akin to a dentist’s waiting room than a room servicing a pool area.

“Isn’t it funny today we have seen two of the frontrunners completely unravel and two of the underdogs rise to the top,” Shaynna said.

The judges had loved the “cosy styling” of Maddy and Charlotte’s mezzanine office/living space.

Maddy and Charlotte’s excellent upstairs living space.

Darren noted that the planned guest retreat meant that the girls were now selling a “dual income property” that could be used as a separate rental or to house grandparents, guests or a nanny.

“It’s so multi-generational, multifaceted, multi-income generating they have opened up a massive amount of possibilities by changing that window to a door. It’s genius,” he enthused.

Meanwhile the boys’ games room was a huge hit with closet gamers Darren and Marty.

Marty noted that Ricky and Haydn’s place had become “the fun house” that kids would nag their parents to buy or rent.

“This is so smart. This is what you call league of their own,” Marty said as Darren sighed: “They had me at Streetfighter.”

“I never thought this would be a house that I would buy but it’s pulling on my heartstrings,” Marty said before challenging Darren to a round of Streetfighter.

Ricky and Haydn’s games room wasn’t stylish but it still won over the judges.

The judges were less enamoured by Courtney and Grant’s stylish office, with Marty quipping that the lay-out made him feel like he had walked into a therapy session.

“You can’t deny the colours, the features the execution, but I don’t feel good in here,” Shaynna shrugged.

She said an office on the mezzanine (where it was earmarked on the plans given to contestants) gave the user no privacy to make and take calls. And while Darren saw that their rumpus room “has style in spades” all three felt it would be better as a second bedroom for that controversially big ensuite.

Courtney and Grant were slammed for creating an office in an area designated for an office.

Of Kristian and Mimi’s one finished room, Darren said: “I haven’t seen a room with this many things that I like separately that look so boring together. “It’s so meh!”

Shaynna agreed, adding that the decor was impractical for a room designed to serve as a pool entryway.

Kristian and Mimi reach breaking point.

“If you were going to change the floorplan to your advantage, you have to blow us away,” she said. “This has zero connection to lifestyle outside.”

The negative feedback from the judges was a fitting end to a difficult week for the couple, who wasted far too much time arguing over how best to use their time.

While Kristian had wanted to focus on finishing the rumpus room and cleaning up for the week ahead, Mimi had her sights set on sanding and painting their unfinished hallway.

Courtney and Grant’s mezzanine living area got the thumbs up.

She argued that getting a start on painting the hallway and stairwell was a better use of her time and would reduce her workload in the week ahead.

“I’m just trying to make things easier on myself,” she argued.

Continuing their argument later, Kristian pointed out: “if you really wanted to finish the hallway, maybe you shouldn’t have slept for 24 hours yesterday.”

The exchange frustrated Kristian to the point he pulled a Russell Crowe, furiously hurling his mobile phone to the ground before storming off.

Kristian and Mimi’s repositioned living area was slammed by the judges for reasons of ‘meh’.

“I’m done with this s**t show,” he said as Grant swept in to console him.

With Kristian in tears, foreman Dan (a former contestant who understands the pressure of the build) stepped in to urge him to keep his “chin up. You’re almost there,” reminding him that both Danny Wallis and Adrian Portelli had shown interest in the property.

Dan consoles Kristian. Hopefully Mimi watches this and sees how it’s done.

Mimi, meanwhile, decided to stage a protest and sit in her car and (once again) delay helping get the room done.

When she did eventually a second wind, Mimi said: “we still have a house to finish. I don’t want the house to finish me. I feel like it has finished Kristian.”