Reprinted with permission from www.redesignrevolution.com

With only five contestants, there are no weak links left on Brother vs. Brother. The first house that the contestants will have to guestimate is a three bedroom, three bathroom 1920s Spanish bungalow. Homes in the area are valued between $800k and $1.3 million.

Each team only has two minutes to assess the homes. Team Drew goes first and notice that the layout is wonky, but the kitchen is already fairly well renovated. Then, the teams get a look at the gigantic master bathroom that is a construction zone. Team Jonathan runs out of time so they didn’t even see the master bedroom. The teams now have thirty seconds to estimate the square footage of the house. Team Drew guesses $2,250 and Team Jonathan estimates a bizarrely specific $2,436. The home is actually $1,977 so Team Drew is the closest and chooses to keep the house. They will have three days and a $20k budget to renovate the master suite—bedroom, closet area, and master bathroom.

Team Jonathan visits their home. It’s a three bathroom, two bedroom 1,900 square foot 1935 Spanish-style house. Like Team Drew, they will be renovating the master suite. Mark and Jonathan get to work laying the subfloor in the bathroom while Torche demos the closet area.

David takes up the Spanish-style floor in the bedroom in preparation for new wood flooring while David and Brett attack the time in the master bathroom. Once again, Monica takes on the least challenging role in the bedroom. On Day Two, Monica starts laying down the wood flooring while Brett and David tile the bathroom. Over at Team Jonathan’s house, Torche is searching for just the right dresser that she can turn into a vanity and Mark thinks he’s going to blow everybody’s minds with an intricate decorative shelving inset in the bathtub alcove. When Jonathan arrives, he’s disappointed by the lack of progress. Team Drew is also running behind schedule. Drew encourages Monica to change the paint color because the blues she chose are too fuddy-duddy. And, the bathroom tiling isn’t anywhere close to finished.

On Day Three, Torche is on death’s door and visits a doctor. So their two-person team is now down to one person. But, she decides to soldier on and do as much as she can. Team Drew’s house is moving along with a more sophisticated paint color. But, the closet is nowhere and the bathroom tile is never-ending.

Well, Team Jonathan doesn’t finish. But, they still maybe sort of add value. Kennon Earl from Selling L.A. is this week’s real estate expert. He views Team Drew’s house first.

The tile bathroom isn’t fantastic, with a poor tile choice and questionable craftsmanship. And, the closet has less storage than it had before.

While the hardwood floor is nice, it’s unclear whether the floors will increase the value of the home significantly. Team Jonathan’s house is up next.

The master bedroom looks “fresh,” but the room is still dark. The closet area is very nice, with top quality finishings. Unfortunately, the bathroom is totally unfinished. Mark spent all of his time building the shelves in the bathtub alcove that nothing else is finished. While Kennon likes the choices the team made, the numbers will be based upon the unfinished condition of the bathroom.

Drew’s team added $12,500 of value in the master bedroom, but the closet added no value at all. The bathroom added $15,500 , for an added value of $28k (with a $20k budget). Team Jonathan gets high marks for the closet in the master bedroom which added $4,900 of value. Because the master bathroom is unfinished, it only added $4,100 of value. By focusing too much on quality, the contestants didn’t finish the project. Overall, they only added $16k (after investing $20k in renovations). That means Team Drew wins. So which one goes home?

Jonathan thinks Torche will be the strongest contestant going into the finale, so Mark goes home. Good choice, Jonathan.

Next week, identical twin homeowners with identical houses.