Editorial assistant Olivia Shead gets to look inside The Block

Up front there are two things I’ve got to disclose. First, I’m a massive twins fan and though all my university studies have taught me being a journalist means being balanced, when push comes to shove it’s hard to put into practice. Second, this was kind of the best day of my life, so please humour this rather indulgently long post. Now that’s sorted, let us begin.

The day began at 1pm, when I flew from Sydney to Melbourne. Staying at The Blackman (one of the Art Series Hotels and a favourite of Jen’s) on St Kilda Road, I had a suite on the 17^th floor. The room was rather excessive for a single person, including two separate sleeping areas, a bathroom, kitchenette, dining area and balcony, but who am I to complain?!

After staying at the hotel for a couple of hours, in a rather jittery excitement, the time had come. I was off to see The Block!

The Block is situated on a quiet street in Albert Park. All the neighbouring houses are cute single story terraces, which juxtapose rather dramatically against the massive structure that is The Block, or as the building is actually called, Dux House.

Once in, the common area and pool is immediately on your right. Everyone who was attending the media preview got ushered into there, where, with some drinks and canapés, we waited for the proceedings to begin. This is also where some very disappointing news was broken to me: we were only allowed on the first floor of the apartments, not upstairs. They even had Channel 9 personnel guarding each staircase so no over eager Blockheads like me could sneak up! However, in perfect timing, I was handed the menu for the five-course dinner and suddenly I no longer felt as gloomy.

From then on we went through each apartment and, in each kitchen, we were talked through the appliances, ate our next course and then had some time to walk around the entire ground floors. The first stop was Brad and Dale’s apartment. In one of their wisest moves, we discovered they had changed their dining table from the tiny four-seater to a more reasonable six-seater.

What however was very obvious was how small the apartment’s entertaining space was. In fact, apart from the twins (I’m not biased, others agreed with me!) and even Steve and Chantelle’s, the others felt surprisingly tiny in comparison. That being said, we were a group of 40 or so people and how often are you going to have that many people in your apartment?

The boys’ guest bathroom was a knockout and their feature artwork in the kitchen was as amazing in real life as it had been on screen.

Next up were Steve and Chantelle, who were probably my surprise of the night. Their kitchen, which I must admit I thought was a bit of a disaster when I saw it on TV (who puts a stove top in the middle of their soon to be living space?) worked really well and meshed nicely into the living and dining sections. They also had managed to separate their dining area somewhat from the living, which both the boys and Kyal and Kara didn’t do.

The Super Ks’ apartment was our third visit and the timberwork was truly magnificent. Their guest bedroom was gorgeous and so spacious, which then made their living and dining area seem even smaller in comparison.

I couldn’t help agreeing with the judges on this one; it was such a grand entrance to the apartment — a real standout foyer and hallway — that you just expected the area that awaited you on the other side to be on the same level of grandeur. That said, I loved all their furniture and styling, and in terms of personal aesthetic, they definitely match mine the most.

Our last stop was Alisa and Lysandra’s apartment and what a different it makes switching the kitchen and the dining. It truly made the space seem so much bigger. If you hadn’t had known that all the apartments were the same size, you wouldn’t have believed it.

You also got to see the light well in action, which made the ceilings seem huge. Unfortunately, it was dark when we arrived at their apartment but I’m sure it would have also added a lot of light to the space.

I’m trying to think of something critical to say about them but I honestly can’t. If I’m scraping the barrel I think a mirror as a splashback in the kitchen would be a nightmare to clean… but that’s all!

The night ended after that and I got to take home the most incredible goodie bags (plural), a big box I later found out had a pot and pan in it and literally the biggest piece of parmesan cheese I’ve ever seen! You can imagine what I looked like flying this all back to Sydney as carry on!

The night was incredible and a big thank you to The Good Guys Kitchens for getting me there. Come auction day, may the best twins (I mean team) win!

The evening’s sponsors: Samsung, Fisher & Paykel, Electrolux, Bosch and Smeg.