:Original Airdate: April 23, 2007 The episode begins with Andrew and Jaime repairing the bucket of the incorrectly built rain catcher (so that the hole in the bucket, drilled by Jaime in the first group challenge, is now at the top instead of at the bottom), needed in fact to do the very next challenge. The episode ends with Candace being named the most improved due to her redesigned shed, while Ruth was named the worst as she made unnecessary changes to her shed and did not do a single challenge correctly. Her extra lesson is not shown.
Group Challenge: The Barbecue Pit In the episode's group challenge, Jeff must lead the contestants to build a barbecue pit, using reclaimed
bricks, bags of
mortar mix and water collected from their new rain catcher. The challenge begins with Jeff being the only person not to read the instructions in the mortar, leading the team to lay dry bricks with no gap for mortar between. When he is informed by Andrew that wet bricks bond better to mortar, the team simply continues to lay bricks, with wet bricks over dry ones (as opposed to starting over and having all wet bricks). Furthermore, there is very little mortar applied and the mortar is applied after the bricks are in place (as opposed to buttering the brick with mortar before setting the bricks in place). While Jeff, Ruth and Candace continue to lay bricks, Jaime uses the
pointing trowel to do
tuck pointing while Terry adds in ventilation for the barbecue pit by leaving holes in the brickwork. When the nominators arrive to see the contestants' progress, the nominators (Sheilla in particular) do not like the contestants' work so far in the challenge—in particular, Jeff had not used a
level at all in the challenge (needed to ensure that each row of bricks are applied to a uniform height). Despite Jaime's last-ditch attempt to level the brickwork using said level (only to stop when he realizes that it is a pointless endeavour with multiple layers of brick already installed), when the challenge is over (after 82 minutes) and the nominators are asked to give a thumbs-up thumbs-down rating, the fire pit received five emphatic thumbs-downs—two each from the experts and one from Andrew.
The Countersink Challenge Despite the camaraderie that had formed between the contests, nominators and even the crew, Jeff and Ruth have not gotten along well with each other: this is due to Ruth seeing Jeff as an arrogant chauvinist and Jeff having previously proclaimed that he could improve far better than any of the other four contestants. To settle the score, Jeff and Ruth decide on a race to see who could countersink one nail with fewer strokes. The race, with Andrew as referee and everyone else watching, was close wire-to-wire, but Ruth was declared the winner after video replay as it took Jeff two more strokes (which he had claimed was "for insurance") of the hammer to drive his nail home.
The Redesign After some instruction on basic framing knowledge from Jill, each contestant could choose to redesign their sheds to new specifications. This was necessary for four of the contestants, whose sheds are either too tall for the warehouse door (Candace, Terry, Jaime) or would fail a building inspection (Jeff). These redesigned shed frames would then be assembled by the show's staff. •
Terry: Having half of his shed taken away in the first episode (leaving it with only three walls), as well as the fact that his two-storey shed lacked a roof, Terry's redesign was a necessity. His redesigned shed is eight feet tall, with a one-foot high sloped roof. Unfortunately, with his -tall subfloor, his redesigned shed is still too tall for the warehouse door. •
Jaime: Contending that the height restriction is entirely arbitrary, Jaime decides to lower the roof of his shed by ten inches, which made it still too tall. •
Jeff – Jeff decides to add the studs desperately needed to his building, as well as to make it taller. His new shed is from the warehouse floor to the shed's
soffit, which means that his shed, with high rafters (the flat unsloped roof is retained), is too tall for the warehouse door. •
Candace – Candace decides to take out a lot of her lumber and keep every fourth stud in her tightly studded shed, as well as lower her sloped roof by two feet (so that it is now one foot tall on the high side instead of three feet tall). She is the only person in the end to have her shed be under the height of the warehouse door at nine feet. •
Ruth: Although being the only contestant whose changes were not strictly necessary, Ruth decides to make her shed taller by keeping the roof unchanged but making her shed eight feet tall, leaving the shortest contestant with the tallest shed and far too high for the warehouse door.
The Tool Test While the show's crew get busy on rebuilding the contestants' shed frames, the contestants themselves are given a simple test, administered by Jill, to see if they can identify 11 different handyman tools. Among the tools were
bevels,
coping saws,
files,
pliers,
reciprocating saws and
screwdrivers. Although very little of the test was shown, Jeff was the worst, having been able to identify three of the 11 tools.
Solar Panels The contestants in this challenge are tasked to build a triangular frame that would house a
solar panel, which would power two
lightbulbs and two wall outlets in their sheds, within 60 minutes. To help them, they are given one prototype frame from which they can take and copy their measurements. •
Terry – Terry begins measuring for his base, but is frustrated when he constantly mismeasures. Frustrated by his
jigsaw, Terry proceeds to use his
crosscut saw to do his cutting. Harvey then uses his
combination square to ensure that his base (and Terry's cuts) are truly square. However, he attaches the top cross piece without checking whether his sloped pieces are at the correct angle of 60°. After adjustments, Terry believes "close enough" is good enough, while Harvey disagrees. Harvey eventually wins out and Terry goes adjusting. He is eventually finished at 63 minutes, with all angles correct. •
Jaime – Jaime works at a feverish pace, with no issues besides Sheilla dropping subtle hints about whether his measurements were accurate or his joins were square. Like the other contestants, Jaime has trouble using his
speed square to determine the correct angle. When he seeks Justin for advice on using it, he discovers that his angles are wrong and tries many times to fix the angle. Although he believes that Sheilla was no help at all, eventually, Jaime does run out of things to adjust and his final result is correct. He finishes with only two minutes left on the clock, the only person to do so correctly within the time limit. •
Jeff – Jeff begins by making the measurements, which are marked down on the wood by his nominator, Fred, who also does the cutting work for Jeff. Although Fred does his best to assist Jeff in building the frame, his frame is not square or at the correct angle. Although they try to use a shim to prop up the solar panel so that it is at the correct angle, Jeff is given a failing grade. He is also the first to finish at 47 minutes. •
Candace – Because it took her five whole minutes to make a single cut in her wood with her crosscut saw in the skills evaluation (only to give up and use the power tools), Justin is doing the cutting for Candace. Just soon after Justin begins assembling the frame himself, leaving Candace out of the picture. This, however, did not mean that she was done—neither saw that her vertical boards were cut too short (meaning that their angles were not correct either). Although both eventually notice this, Candace, even with Justin's help, is puzzled by where to place the speed square so that she could measure the proper angles. After 70 minutes, Candace gets the correct frame, but is clueless as to why the frame is correct. •
Ruth – Ruth begins by making measurements, although the marking on her wood is a barely visible dot rather than a whole line across her lumber. Thus, when she begins cutting, her pieces are not square. When she begins to use a
combination square for marking a line across her lumber, Michelle contends that she is not using it correctly. Ruth also chooses to ignore measuring the angles. When she declares herself finished, Andrew contends that her frame is not square and her angle is incorrect due to the lack of measurement, which she addresses by using shims. She finishes in 68 minutes, but the frame is not correct.
Electrical Wiring The next step in shed building is electrical work, which they are given tutoring by Jill (who states simply, "White-on-white, black-on-black, no sparky-sparky" on how to properly connect wires). In this challenge, the contestants must wire their shed by adding an electrical panel, which would be connected to the solar panels (by Jaime, who volunteered), as well as connect two $90 energy-efficient lightbulbs on one
series circuit to it (the entire electrical setup, including the solar panel, is over $2,300 per shed). If, at the end of the challenge, the lighting is faulty,
Rob MacDonald, the show's own lighting technician who bet eventual "winner"
Keith Cole ten
dollars that he wouldn't finish the wallpapering before the time ran out in the final exam in
the previous season (a bet Andrew also took, by the way), would help the contestants fix their faulty wiring. When the solar panel captures energy, it is stored in a
car battery and then through an
inverter, which would then be used to power their sheds (as well as charge their power tools in later challenges). To aid the contestants in their electrical work, detailed diagrams have been given. The contestants are free to place their rectangular box (for the switch) and octagon boxes (for their lights) anywhere in their shed. •
Terry – Terry, who had wired his "man-shed" back home with
extension cords, installs his light boxes so that it is not recessed, meaning that the light box will be visible even after the lights are installed and the shed is finished. Although Terry fixes this, he makes another error in not extending the light box from the roof rafters. Terry is further puzzled by the presence of a ground wire, adding to the confusion of how the lights and the battery should be wired up to the panel. In the end, though, Terry solves all his issues and finishes his wiring correctly in 122 minutes. However, he never got around to fixing his octagon box positions. •
Jaime – Jaime installs his rectangular box so that they extend too far from the wall (one and a half inches instead of half an inch) and installs his light boxes at the very top of his shed, on the ridgeboards (meaning that it is not recessed in the rafters either). Jaime also makes the mistake of attaching a black wire to a white one while wiring his lights, which (while Jaime is fixing the wiring) infuriates her to the point that Sheilla stops helping her nominee, leaving their work area. No footage of Jaime working after Sheilla leaves is shown, although Jaime proceeds to connect the solar panels after he is finished. Before his own test (for which Sheilla is present), however, Andrew sees that his switch is already in the on position—from Jaime having installed the switch upside-down. Despite this minor mistake, Jaime's work is finished and correct after 129 minutes. •
Jeff – Jeff begins by installing his boxes so that they are flush to the edge of the wood, rather than extending them out by a half-inch (to account for the finished wall). When drilling holes in his studs for his electrical, Jeff does not realize that his drill is in reverse and prompts Fred to try doing what he could not do after a whole minute. Harvey goes through in seconds after setting Jeff's drill back to forward. No further footage of Jeff's work is shown, although he is finished by the time Jaime has finished connecting the solar panels to the sheds. Jeff's electrical work, by the time it is put to the test, fails, giving him an overall failing grade after 165 minutes of work. Jeff's mistake, as found by Rob, was that the wire that connects the lights to his panel is far too loose. •
Candace – Candace is easily confused as to where she should begin, much less where to install her boxes. After a moment of inspiration, Candace begins in earnest by having Justin install the boxes. After wiring is done, Candace makes another mistake when trying to install her light bulbs, snapping the lightbulb in half when twisting the bulb into the socket, which she discovers when she asks for Justin's assistance. Crestfallen over the loss of an expensive lightbulb, Candace begins to break down, prompting Justin to finish the electrical work for her. Because of the broken bulb, her circuit does not function at all, even after the two bulbs are switched around. After 159 minutes, her effort only gets her a failing grade. Rob finds the fault in their wiring, ironically enough, in the socket with the broken bulb. •
Ruth – Ruth begins by installing her switch box higher than her head, and her light box higher up the wall (which would create shadows). When she drills holes in her studs to allow wire to pass through, she complains that her drill is slow, only to realize that her drill was on reverse when Michelle asks. Ruth is far from finished by the time the other sheds have
finished their electrical tests. Eventually, Rob is brought in to finish Ruth's wiring, taking half an hour to fix 12 mistakes that already exists in Ruth's wiring work. Eventually, after 233 minutes, Ruth's wiring is complete. After the electrical, the final evaluations are made. Greg notes that Ruth's fixtures are too low for her shed, while Greg and Jill note down Jeff's flat unsloped roof (flat roofs are slightly sloped so as to allow water on the roof to run off). Greg's and Jill's critique of Candace's shed is that the lights were installed in the wrong places (which, when they were on, would create shadow), while the criticism against Jaime is that he made the smallest change in the height of his shed (needing a two-foot lowering of his original shed to make the height limit). Finally, the experts' critique of Terry's shed is that much of the work done so far is not his own work—and the work that Harvey has put in is not too great, either. As for the barbecue pit, it is still not in one solid piece after several days of the mortar curing (as Andrew demonstrates, he is able to take apart pieces of the brickwork with his own hands). ==Episode 3: Sealing the Deal==