‘It’s everything that I hate about building’
Builder Spence is used to running a tight ship at his own job sites. The Block, with its warp-speed fast pace, random challenges, multi-builds, fellow contestants and foremen to contend with (and answer to) was always going to present a challenge.
Frustrated he and his crew had been forced to wait on Hayden to finish his plumbing, Spence tried – and failed – to negotiate a “hold up” fee for wasted tradesmen hours.
During Challenge week, Spence had set extremely high expectations of himself, which resulted in him pushing past the point of exhaustion and breaking down in tears.
Week One is Bathroom week – always a huge challenge - but of course, Spence had also set himself a high level of perfection he wanted to achieve. When the plumbing hold-up continued, Spence became increasingly concerned with his ability to finish.
“When you’re trying to build some quality in six days, it’s impossible,” he explained. “Ridiculous.”
“I’ll still push through, and I’ll be working probably two full nights ‘cause we’re doing the tiling ourselves, [but] if it doesn’t get finished, it doesn’t get finished,” he said.
“I was sort of struggling to…” he trailed off. “To find a reason to stay,” finished his wife.
Thinking of her husband so stressed out set Kerrie off into a flood of tears. “You don’t want to see anyone you care about going through that,” she said. “I’m gonna do anything I can to help him and protect him.”
With a wingman like that at his side, maybe Spence can get through the learning curve and adapt to Block life after all. If he can just get through this week first.
