"live" block coverage, page-36

Hey big Al,
It's better the devil you know isn't it?
Nothing new with the shortcuts made on this show.
I've been in the building game for the best part of 20years and these half baked renos come as no suprise. Everyone you meet these days is a renovator, they watch Scotty Cam and Rob Palmer on the TV then go to Bunnings, buy some paint and wood and "fix up" a room.
At least they had some money to throw into some quality fittings and fixtures on the Block.
I loved the Mums on the block - "we've read all the magazines so we're really good renovators". That pretty much sums up 1/2 of the renos done in Melbourne over the last 10years. There's so many poor quality houses on the market that many young buyers may have never seen a well built home. These type of renovations are a gold mine for tradesmen that enjoy doing maintainence work. It would take weeks to sand those houses back to bare timber and paint them properly, none of windows looked like they were flashed, I could make a list 5 pages long but the point is that the quality of these houses is no different to many other houses in Melbourne that sold at the top of the market for top dollar.