‘Rock the Block’ Season 3 Finale Crowns a Winner—and the Most Valuable Thing a Home Can Have
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After six weeks, HGTV’s design competition show “Rock the Block” has reached its season finale, where four teams put the finishing touches on their renovations in Charleston, SC, to see whose home is best of all.
Each identical house had a starting value of $500,000, and each team was given $225,000 to work their magic. The team with the home that has the highest appraised value wins the competition—and earns the bragging rights of having the street these homes are on named after it!
The judges for this final round are Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt of “100 Day Dream Home,” the winners from last season, and “Property Brothers” star Drew Scott.
The final challenge for the teams is to finish a third-floor bonus room of 500 square feet and a second-floor bedroom. What the teams do at this point could make or break their chances of coming out ahead.
“The difference in appraisal between first and second place was just $6,000,” host Ty Pennington reminds them about last season’s results. “So a strategic design project at this time and place can make a huge difference.”
Read on to find out not only who steals the show, but also the upgrades that matter most when it comes to adding value to a house. Along the way, you’ll learn some priceless renovation lessons you might be inspired to try around your own abode. Watch and learn!
It’s hard to pin a price on art
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Keith Bynum and Evan Thomas of “Bargain Block” are known for their artistic touches, and nowhere is that more evident than in the second-floor bedroom they turn into a nursery. They’ve decorated it with a spectacular mountain mural and flamingos flying across the ceiling.
“The mural in the nursery is adding aesthetic value that we know buyers would love,” says Scott.
Yet although the mural is beautiful, Mika points out that it might not boost the appraisal much.
“Art is hard to value, though, because it’s in the eye of the beholder,” she says.
Brian agrees with his wife.
“Appraisers are black and white, and this house is not black and white,” he adds.
An extra bathroom always adds value
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Jenny and Dave Marrs of “Fixer to Fabulous” turn their third-floor space into a whimsical playroom for the kids, complete with a climbing wall and a slide that spirals down to a second-floor bedroom any kid would love.
“It is a fun space, and they’re definitely trying to cater to people with younger kids,” Scott says.
“It’s definitely a fun space,” adds Brian. “It has everything, except there’s no bathroom up here. I feel like not having a bathroom is really going to kill them in appraised value.”
Indeed, the three other teams had all decided to convert one of the three upstairs closets into a bathroom, since, as Scott points out, “Having an en suite bedroom is always a value add.”
Warm up a room with different textures
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When the judges step into the primary suite of the home designed by Mike Jackson and Egypt Sherrod of “Married to Real Estate,” they are impressed by the interesting textures in the room.
Jackson and Sherrod’s room features a custom-built table made of driftwood, an antique barn door to the bathroom, and a chandelier that looks like a cascade of seashells. These textures are not necessarily something that buyers immediately notice, but they add to the warmth and luxurious feeling in a room.
“There are so many beautiful textures in here,” Scott says. “It’s a gorgeous room.”
Extra storage is always a plus
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“Anytime you add extra storage, that’s going to be added value,” says Mika as she marvels at the built-ins in the living room of the home renovated by Lyndsay Lamb and Leslie Davis of “Unsellable Houses.”
“I love the way they have the built-ins on both sides [of the fireplace]. That’s great,” adds Scott.
Oddly enough, the twin sisters don’t put enough storage space in their FROG (finished room over the garage) and are docked points for that.
Sometimes it’s worth it to hire help
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Even the best project managers get in a bind when unforeseen shortages or overly ambitious projects put them behind, and there’s no shame in bringing in a little extra help.
Bynum and Thomas are building a full-service spa/wellness center, with a steam shower, massage table, and sauna in place of one of the three closets in the room. But they run into a problem.
“As I open the sauna kit, I look at the hundreds of pieces and decide that I need a carpenter in here to help me out,” says Thomas. “Because doing that the night before would be extremely stressful.”
Bynum and Thomas claim the $1,850 it cost them to install the sauna was 100% worth it.
A generator can be a lifesaver if a storm hits
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Jackson and Sherrod decide to take the $5,000 they won in last week’s challenge and put it toward something consummately practical yet unique.
“Since we’ve been here, we’ve had storms and people have lost power, and that’s just in five weeks,” says Sherrod.
“I see where you’re going with this,” Jackson adds. They decide to add a hard-wired, whole-house generator—the perfect solution to weather almost any storm that sweeps through.
Who wins this season of ‘Rock the Block’?
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While all the homes look beautiful, at the end of the competition, it’s clear that the most important thing a house can have is functionality. And since few things are as handy as a generator, the judges name Jackson and Sherrod the winners of not only this round, but also the entire season.
“It’s all about function. They were so thoughtful in every single space,” says Scott of the winners. “It had style, it had personality, but function over anything else.”
Their post-renovation house was estimated to be worth a whopping $931,000.
Fireworks light the sky, and the new street sign is erected. Henceforth and forevermore, the name of the street where all four of these remarkably improved homes are located will be Egypt & Mike Street.
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