8 Down, 8 Still to Go!

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March 18, 2014 by Amie M

And here is the next edition of the Ron-some parade!

(Photo credit: Dad)

Last week’s episode of Canada’s Handyman Challenge was the most stressful yet! Watch the episode here.

The first challenge was actually three mini challenges, where the contestants were to first hang a door in half an hour, then brick and mortar a Roman arch in the next stage, and cut a negative relief of an positive image into a sheet of plywood exactly as they see it. The judges warned the contestants that a fail in one challenge could be alright, but a fail in two challenges could send them home.

Dad appeared to rock the socks off the first challenge. He aced hanging a door. He measured twice and cut once. But in the judging of Dad’s door, Brian Baeumler noted that his main door hole was chipped. Dad was rushed in his drilling and his bit ground out the hole on the way out. He also didn’t have time to install the security plate in the deadbolt, but these misses barely counted as a fail in this challenge.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

Growing up and working in a province where brick is not a common medium to work in within the construction industry, brick and mortaring a Roman arch was expected to be a tougher challenge for Dad. Think again! This was Dad’s best mini-challenge, and he was even one of the best contestants at it. His arch did not fail after the supports were pulled out, and did not collapse into rubble when Paul LaFrance karate chopped the keystone.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

The third challenge had a lot of intricate draftsman work that Dad is very familiar with. As a designer of a lot of his own projects, Dad is never scared of transferring an idea from one surface to another. Dad did a great job of superimposing the positive image of the H and C from the model board onto his board. But in the end, his negative relief board did not fit well onto the positive model Scott McGillivray designed.

According to the judges, Dad found himself in the bottom two for the challenge, and the fans of the #mbsilverfox found themselves in a state of utter disbelief. In the end, Kirk from Nova Scotia found himself going home.

The second half of the episode was a flashback to the Winnipeg Auditions for the remaining three from Team Toba. The contestants were given open rein to all of their previous projects in order to make a Judge-Mobile.

Pops jumped on the idea right away and put together a rickshaw. He used a section from his stairs for tiered seating for the judges, colourful backing to the seats from the billboard, and the negative relief of the puzzle challenge product placement on the back of the cart. But the limiting factor in all of the carts were the flimsy bicycle wheels that had to be used to move the carts along. Dad planned well, and boxed his wheels into his frame for extra support.

(Photo credit: Dad)

In the final part of the challenge, the contestants had to pull all three judges through an obstacle course on their chariots. Dad’s was flying until they hit the first curve. Then the wheels simply folded. This was not the worst showing of a cart, though, as other carts didn’t even make it out of the gate or fell apart before hitting the track.

Dad’s strategy of middle packing it went well in this episode, and kept him safe to make it through to the Top 6 episode tonight! But unfortunately it meant that Mark from Brandon went home, and the Team Toba contenders went down to two.

Watch tonight’s episode, and Vote for my Dad in the fan favourite poll.