Reprinted with permission from www.redesignrevolution.com

It’s the finale on Brother vs. Brother, and the brothers have predictably split up the remaining four contestants into boys versus girls. Blah, never seen that on a reality show before. So Monica joins Team Jonathan. Both teams have nearly identical 1978, 1,600 square foot four bedroom, two bathroom tract houses worth $330k. And the homeowners are also identical because it’s twinfest. The teams have three days and $30k to add as much value to the homes as possible. The entire losing team will be eliminated, and Drew and Jonathan will choose the champion from the remaining two contestants.

The girls start ripping the walls and floors apart in the kitchen. Then, Monica plans out the beige, neutral color palette. In Team Drew’s home, David is planning a fireplace feature and laminate flooring to replace the cruddy carpeting. Brett is hacking away at the walls in the kitchen and planning new cabinets, countertops, appliances and a tiled backsplash.

When Jonathan visits the house, he is surprised at the beige brown neutral blah boring color palette and encourages a little bit of…anything. To address Jonathan’s concerns, Monica changes the countertop from neutral brown to neutral grey. Living on the edge there, eh Monica? Jonathan also worries about the lack of upper cabinets in the kitchen (when a wall dividing the living room and kitchen came out, it took the cabinets with it and they have been replaced with…air?), but there’s nothing that anybody can do about that other than scrunch up their faces and hope for the best.

On the last day, Brett desperately lays down the tiles for his backsplash as David pieces together a cover for the electric fireplace. At Team Jonathan’s house, Monica hasn’t even thought about her fireplace yet. Compared to Team Drew’s living room, this one’s a dud. Torche wants to take over the fireplace, but Monica won’t give it up because she knows that it’ll hand the win to Torche. Jonathan steps in and gives the okay to Torche’s fireplace concept, so Monica quietly backs off and continues with her kitchen backsplash.  Team Drew has a bizarre moment with their fireplace and paints the back panel a deep berry with a Tiffany’s blue mantel. It’s bold and creative, and if the judges like it, the fireplace feature will completely outshine the ordinary kitchen.

When the finishing scramble is, well, finished, everyone steps back to look at the homes. Jonathan and Drew bring back all of the experts from previous episodes to evaluate the work. Team Drew’s house is a bold and modern space with a comfortable and functional layout. Team Jonathan’s house is equally impressive, though the color scheme lacks punch and the furniture placement is confusing.

The judges begin with Team Jonathan’s house.

The pluses are the dramatic fireplace and the big open space. The negatives are the couch facing a blank wall and the lack of storage space in the kitchen. The original value of the house was $330k, and the new value is $390k, an increase of $60k.

In Team Drew’s house, the fireplace design is a plus, but the fireplace is still an outdated electric fireplace. Also, the space does not seem as expansive as Team Jonathan’s house. The kitchen design is impressive, but the construction was not quite up to par. Like Team Jonathan’s house, Team Drew’s house was valued at $330k. The new value is $405k, an increase of $75k. That makes Team Drew the winner, and Torche and Monica are eliminated from the competition.

So now it’s between Bland and Blander. I mean who cares, really? Just let them split the cash. But no. Drew and Jonathan choose David, also known as The Guy On The Left. I do like his scarf. Congratulations, guy. Here’s your champagne and oversized novelty check.

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.

Reprinted with permission from www.redesignrevolution.com

Both teams have three contestants left, two days, and $25k to finish their houses. Monica takes over the laundry room for Team Drew and magically finds room in the budget to purchase a stackable washer and dryer. Drew arrives with caffeine and gives some advice, including removing the fussy wooden edging on the built-in cabinets that are making the dining room look dated.

Team Jonathan is a little disjointed. Francis takes over the kitchen and his biggest problem is that there’s no money, and no countertops.  He settles on butcher block, but Mark worries about the multiple wood grains in the kitchen. While Francis is fighting with Mark over the kitchen, Torche takes over the wood floors and flies through the task.

On the final day, Team Drew’s house is in good shape but the laundry room is still behind schedule. When Jonathan visits Team Drew’s house, he gets a little nervous. It looks good, and it’s close to being finished. Drew then takes a peek at Team Jonathan’s house. The floors are gorgeous and finished, but Drew is not impressed with the butcher block countertop. With two hours left, Mark begins a new project in the kitchen—the ceiling alcove lighting thingamabob. Over in Team Jonathan’s house, the backsplash is in crisis mode and Monica’s laundry room has cheap, uneven shelving.

Hilary Farr and David Visentin from Love It Or List It are judging the homes. They start with Team Drew’shouse and are very impressed.

The moldings maximize the height, and the fireplace is a nice focal point. The kitchen is a vast improvement with modern countertops, backsplash, and tile flooring. They also built additional counter space. But, although there is a good use of space in the new laundry room, construction is shoddy.

At Team Jonathan’s house, the new hardwood flooring impresses the judges.

But, the dark wood over the fireplace sucks the life out of the room. Hilary mocks Francis’s artwork in the dining room (thank you, Hilary!) and notices that the wooden dining table is completely empty. The kitchen is a huge upgrade, including Mark’s new ceiling. But, as expected, there’s too much wood.

Jonathan’s Team added $42k of value to the house, but it wasn’t enough to beat Team Drew who added $50k of value to the house. So who goes home? Please let it be Francis, please let it be Francis, please let it be Francis. It’s Francis! Yes! I mean I’m really, really sorry to see him go. Good luck renovating your personality, Francis.

Next week, it’s three against two.

The first house is a 1927 French cottage-style home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and 1,900 square feet. Similar homes range in value from $480k-1.2 million, so there’s a huge range. With five minutes to examine the house, the teams check out the small, dark rooms to assess the value. Team Jonathan prices the home at $699k and Team Drew guesses $759k. The actual value of the home is $845k. Team Drew wins the assessment and decides to renovate this home and give the mystery house to Team Jonathan.

Across town, Team Jonathan finds a 1923 duplex conversion with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and 1,900 square feet. The home is valued a bit less than Team Drew’s house, so there is certainly room for improvement. Jonathan tells them to work on the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Francis has some nutty idea about swooshing the floor upwards onto the wall in the dining room, so I look forward to his imminent elimination. Inez takes control of the kitchen, with new countertops and cabinets. Torche wants to spruce up the fireplace, but Jonathan cautions that the existing fireplace is historic and expensive and NO HULK SMASH!

At Team Drew’s house, the designers are renovating the kitchen, laundry room, and living room. Monica takes control of the budget while Christy tackles the laundry room and Brett claims the kitchen as his own. The kitchen gets new appliances, countertops, floors, and windowpanes. This doesn’t leave much money for a stackable washer and dryer in the laundry room, and Christy can’t plan her space without a decision on appliances. David is working on the fireplace and the staging for the living room. Monica, however, plans her own color palette for the living room, so…huh.

It’s Day Two, and someone gave Francis a color swatch book and he plans a dark and dramatic dining room in a small space without much natural light. Mark is installing an all-new wood floor. Having busted the budget on wood flooring, Inez settles on economical concrete countertops in the kitchen.  Torche’s fireplace is slow going, but it looks nifty with reclaimed wood.

Jonathan is impressed with Inez’s kitchen, but he’s not a fan of concrete countertops since you have to keep sealing them. Or, you just accept the stains as they come along (glances at wine stains on the concrete dining table and swears they don’t bother her in the least…). Then, Jonathan eggs on Francis’s insanity by cautioning him against boring color choices and a vague interest in whatever art piece Francis has planned. Oh my gawd, Francis has a giant pink, grey, orange, and white drip painting that takes the room back to the 1980s. *shudder*

Team Drew is focusing on quality craftsmanship, so Brett is swapping out frosted windowpanes for clear glass. David is building a fireplace mantle, and he’s going for perfection that is hard to accomplish on a tight timeframe. Monica is painting the living room, and Christy is nowhere in the laundry room because she still doesn’t know about the stackable washer and dryer. Just buy her a stupid stackable washer and dryer already! Aaaand Monica lets Christy know that not only is there no money for stackables because they blew the budget on the kitchen, there’s no money for a washer and dryer at all. Drew is concerned because the new laundry room plan means there is less storage than was there before.

It’s time to cut one member from each team. Jonathan says Torche and Francis are safe, and Marc and Inez are up for elimination because they have not creatively wowed him to date. Drew is looking for a well-rounded team member, and puts Christy and Monica on the chopping block for messing up the budget for the laundry room. Ultimately, he cuts Christy since the laundry room was her responsibility and she failed to fight for what the room really needed. Jonathan sends Inez home because she’s just blah.

Next week, Jonathan’s team has no teamwork and the teams finish the houses.

Reprinted with permission from www.redesignrevolution.com

Jonathan Scott is a contractor and designer, and his twin brother, Drew Scott, is a real estate expert. Together, they are the Property Brothers. And now they are competing against each other by coaching two teams that will renovate homes in a nutty new reality competition show: Brother vs. Brother.

Let’s meet the teams:

Team Jonathan

• Francis, an interior designer and contractor
• Inez, a welder
• Mark, an architect
• Shannon, a real estate agent and decorator
• Tiffany “Torche,” a metal artist

Team Drew

• Brett, a real estate agent
• Christy, a home organizer
• David, a landscape architect
• Monica, an interior designer
• Oliver, a space planner

The teams are gathered in front of a 1951 ranch style house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and 1,400 square feet. Jonathan and Drew explain that homes of this type range between $300,000 and $400,000. The teams’ first challenge is to decide what the home is worth after only a five-minute walk-through. The winning team can choose to renovate the house, or pass it on to the other team and take a second home that they have not yet seen.

Let the guestimating begin! Awkward layout, old bathroom, small pool, terrible lighting, ancient kitchen…and the teams have one minute to talk among themselves. Team Jonathan guesses $322k, and Team Drew prices the home at $356k. The actual value of the home is $340, which means Team Jonathan wins the challenge. So what are they going to do? They’re going to stick with what they know and renovate the house. Team Jonathan will have three days and $25k to renovate the house, plus they will get custom kitchen cabinets that do not come out of the budget. Jonathan organizes his crew and they eventually divide up between master suite, kitchen, master bathroom, and laundry area.

Team Drew’s home is a lot like the other home, only it’s a tiny bit smaller and with just one bathroom. The house is valued at only $282k, but because it is a mess, it should be easy to add value. Team Drew decides to divide up tasks amongst kitchen and bathroom, flooring, and the main living area.

After Team Jonathan is smashing the house to bits in a very cathartic demolition, Shannon is petting fabrics and choosing pillows, Francis has the kitchen mapped out, and Torche has the bathroom under control. Team Drew is also smashing tile to bits, and Oliver starts planning the new kitchen. When Drew arrives to check up on his team, he cautions against focusing too much on the kitchen at the expense of the rest of the house.

On the second day, Team Jonathan’s crew finds all of the hidden problems in the house including extra doors, damaged parquet floors, and a terrible layout for the laundry room. Although he likes his team’s ideas, Jonathan worries that they won’t pull it together in time. Meanwhile, Team Drew’s crew is calm and efficient. They are updating the fireplace, renovating the kitchen, and for some reason laying peel-and-stick tile in the bathroom. Drew reminds his team that it’s all about increasing value, so hopefully someone will rethink the bathroom floors.

It’s the final day and Jonathan is worried about the still-unfinished kitchen and the lack of progress in the master bedroom. To light a fire under their butts, he brings Shannon over to see the other house. She sees that Team Drew’s kitchen and bath is still completely gutted, so the whole “scared straight” thing may have just backfired on Jonathan. Then, Monica from Team Drew gets to see Team Jonathan’s house. She is impressed with the bathroom and the smart changes in the rest of the space.

With only six hours left, Brett dives into the bathroom and Team Jonathan is in total freak-out mode…except for Shannon, who is shopping for carpet tiles to spruce up a room the team wasn’t even planning on renovating. Then, Francis unveils the brightest chartreuse kitchen paint and everyone but Francis makes retching noises.

Time’s up, and in walks the real estate expert. First up is Team Jonathan.

Oh my gosh, that kitchen wall color is overwhelmingly ugly. But the rest of the kitchen is looking sharp with stainless steel appliances, new cabinets, a breakfast bar, and a tile backsplash. Plus, there’s a walk-in pantry where the laundry room used to be, and the laundry room has been tucked into a closet where it belongs. The bathroom is also a massive improvement with a slick space-saving design and top-quality craftsmanship. The master bedroom looks nice enough, but the real estate expert calls it “builder grade.”

Team Drew’s home gives a good first impression with a new tile fireplace and properly-sized dining table. The galley kitchen has been dramatically updated, and the master bathroom has been upgraded with a new vanity and a retiled bathtub. But, the team stuck with the peel-and-stick floor tiles, so the bathroom renovations are not up to snuff.

Let’s hear what the real estate expert thinks. Team Jonathan is up first. The new kitchen added the most value despite the atrocious paint color, and the new pantry also gave the house a jolt of value. Overall, the real estate expert would list the house for $380k, which means the team added $40k of value with a $25k budget.

Next is Team Drew. Their new kitchen also added a chunk of change to the home, and the bathroom renovations also helped to increase the value. With only a $12k budget, Team Drew was able to increase the home’s value from $282k to $332k, which is $50k and enough to beat Team Jonathan.

Jonathan puts Francis on the chopping block because his kitchen renovation was one of the reasons the team lost. Shannon is also up for elimination because she spent too much time on too many tasks that did not increase the value of the home. Jonathan decides to cut Shannon and keep Francis. Now Team Jonathan is a team of four, which makes their job even harder. After the team leaves, Drew arrives to gloat.

Next week, the teams have 48 hours to renovate.