With the teams having finally gained their confidence renovating interiors, it was time for their biggest challenge yet: exteriors and gardens! Last night’s episode of House Rules saw the first semi-final exterior reveal, with the popular Melbourne pair Adam and Lisa taking out the win.
Tasked with the job of transforming Carole and Russell’s barren and rocky front yard into a tropical paradise, the team was nervous from the outset, though it turns out there was no reason to be!
“Literally Lisa and I hadn’t planted a plant between us, so to win that was an unbelievable feeling,” says Adam. “It just proves that if you stick to a plan, do your research and do the hard yards, then eventually it will pay off.”
Yet receiving a 17 out of 20 from judges Joe Snell and Wendy Moore, didn’t come easy. The pair took on a mammoth task: moving the rocks that littered the garden into a carefully designed rockscape. “Across the road from Carole and Russell’s are magnificent mountains with all these natural rocks, and straight away we noticed there were heaps of them on the property as well,” explains Lisa.” So we were just hoping and praying that there would be enough to set the terracing and create a rockscape down the hill.”
With a time limit of just three and a half days, Adam spent most of his time running up and down the steep WA property maneuvering rocks, with them being too heavy for Lisa to carry. “It was an absolute killer,” says Adam. “It was unbelievable. It seriously felt like we were working on Mars, there was just red dirt up there and rock, it was hectic. But I think the harder a challenge, the better the feeling when you’ve finally finished it.”
Receiving such positive comments has also given Adam and Lisa some extra confidence for tackling the next round of exteriors. “We’ve learnt a lot,” explains Adam. “We learnt about grouping, that you need to make sure you have multiple areas in the garden and obviously we learnt about layout and landscaping, that you have to make sure it all flows. So we wanted to take all that forward to the Townsville garden.”
While Adam and Lisa may have come out on top, not all teams were so lucky, with Candy and Ryan, who made over Carole and Russell’s backyard, receiving a 13 out of 20 from the judges. The other exterior that got a transformation was Candy and Ryan’s NSW property, with the judges scoring Carole and Russell a 14 for the backyard and Maddi and Lloyd an 11 for the front yard.
The second semi-final showdown kicks off tonight at 7.30pm with the reveals on Tuesday night. The four teams must next make over the gardens and house exteriors of Maddi and Lloyd’s Townsville Queenslander and Adam and Lisa’s Melbourne cottage.
