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The four couples competing to win the home they will totally renovate are introduced. They are: engaged Disa and Russell, who want this to be the home in which they will start their married life; daughter and father Crystal and Ray, the latter who wants to help his daughter and her boyfriend start their life as a couple; married Nina and PJ, who want the house to be a home that their extended family, most specifically Nina's mother, can feel secure in; and life partners Charlotte and Sean, who want to be able to tell their future children and grandchildren how they came about their house. The couples size each other up, as well as the four tear down houses. They are given a quick challenge to decide which couple will be working on which house. They are thrown into the fire when they learn their first renovation will be the living room, for which they are given a $7,000 budget and a seventy-two hour time frame to complete. The team whose living room renovation is deemed the best by the judges will win a train trip to Jasper, and accommodation at the Jasper Park Lodge. They all have the challenge of transforming what was built in the mid-twentieth century into current day sensibilities. One couple runs into some early difficulties in doing structural work before getting the OK from their contractor. The couples are excited to show the judges what they are trying to accomplish in their home. They will also get a good idea of what will impress the judges in the future as they hear the evaluations.

The next room to be renovated is the kitchen and dining area, with a budget of $12,000 and seventy-two hours to complete it. The winning couple will be awarded cooking lessons and a trip to Paris. As three of the four couples have already torn down the wall between the living room and the kitchen, they are wanting to tie the two rooms together in look and feel. However, they may have some challenges in doing so as they may not be able to control one of the main aspects of the room. Crystal and Ray do not have the living room tie-in room constraint as they were the one couple who did not tear down the adjoining wall. Not tearing down that wall may give them problems regardless because of the long and narrow space within which they have to work. One couple has a major disagreement with their contractor, which may prove to be costly. Although always an important factor, functionality will be a more important evaluation factor than usual.

The teams are given the unusual challenge of transforming whatever the smallest bedroom in their house is into anything but a bedroom. They have forty-eight hours and a $4,000 budget to complete the challenge, with the winner receiving a one-week Caribbean cruise for their efforts. Charlotte and Sean decide on a media room, after discussion Disa and Russell decide on a combined office and reading room, Crystal and Ray also decide on an office, and after discussion Nina and PJ decide on a kids play room, more specifically a ball pit and a climbing wall. Wanting to buck the trend thus far, Cameron issues a challenge for the men, which affects some teams more than others. With hours left, Jeremy inspects each house and has concerns with each. Ultimately the judges choose what they consider to be the most complete room, functionally and aesthetically, as the winner.

The couples are excited by their challenge room this week - the master bedroom - if only because it means they will no longer have to sleep on the floor on air mattresses after it is completed. The things they will not have to shop for are the mattress and box-spring, which are provided for them. They have a $4,000 budget and twenty-four hours to complete the renovation, with the winning team receiving a spa getaway to Kelowna. Charlotte and Sean are aiming for a calm west coast styled oasis. Disa and Russell are continuing their Scandinavian theme, with their major piece being a wall to wall and floor to ceiling wood headboard. Crystal and Ray are going for sophistication, and for the room to stand out from the other rooms in the house. Nina and PJ are going for function and simplicity with glamor, with their featured item being a wallpapered headboard that will extend onto the ceiling over the bed. The twist Cameron throws at them is that they must incorporate four items, two from two different groups of knick knacks with one person from each couple going to a different group of items, and choosing without communicating to their partner. As the twenty-four hours counts down, the questions are whether the bigger projects, such as Disa and Russell's wood wall which requires over nine hundred pieces of wood to be cut, or the items which some couples ignored, such as Charlotte and Sean's meringue ceiling or Crystal and Ray's floor, will come back to bite them in the end.

With their last few challenges having such tight time restrictions, the competitors are happy to learn that they have seventy-two hours to complete their bathroom renovation, which arguably is one of the more difficult rooms in the house to do. The winning team will receive one year's free house cleaning services. Charlotte and Sean want to continue their west coast modern theme with a surf feel. Disa and Russell want to do whatever they can to make what is probably the smallest of the four bathrooms seem larger. Feeling the criticism from the judges in the past, Crystal and Ray are going to scale back their spa inspired design, with an existing claw foot tub one of the benefits already there. And Nina and PJ want to create a zen feel, which they may not be feeling themselves as they work on the reno as they have decided to rearrange the room fixtures. With the renovations well underway, Cameron throws them what may be their biggest challenge to date: they will have to complete one other room renovation within their remaining time, namely the laundry room. Throughout the process, Disa and Russell run into two major issues which could throw them out of the running. The other couples may see Disa and Russell's problems as karma for Russell's actions regarding communal tools. In the end, a decision by one team for function over style and a decision by another team for style over function may not sit well in the eyes of the judges.

The teams tackle the last room in the house, the second bedroom, as their next challenge. They have a $4,000 budget and twenty-four hours to complete the renovation. They are forced to use an item "found" from among a select number of items hidden in an antique store as the inspiration for the room. That item need not necessarily be used itself in the room, and the inspiration need not be literal. Charlotte and Sean, who have a movie director megaphone, decide on the metal and leather of the item as their inspiration for a movie glamor theme. Disa and Russell, who have a red toy car, decide on a travel theme, with a world map with their own travels marked as a focal wall. Crystal and Ray, who have a trumpet, go personal with a British military theme, based on photographs of Ray's grandfather, a trumpeter with the British military during WWI. Nina and PJ, who have a pair of crocodile cowboy boots, design a jungle themed room for their children. The evaluation of the judges is done in part on expectation, as the description of the rooms prior to the renovation often does not translate into what the judges were expecting as the end product. Another evaluation factor ends up being effort in relation to time.

With all the rooms inside of the house renovated, the competitors are next asked to turn their attention to the outside. They have ninety-six hours and a $15,000 budget to transform the exterior of their house, the team winning this challenge who are awarded what most see as the best prize so far: $5,000 worth of outdoor recreational equipment and a trip for two to Japan to use at least the new skis. As the exterior includes the roof, they are all given lessons in roof safety, which additionally freaks some of the already freaked competitors. Unlike the previous renovations, these ones are done in full view of the other competitors, who may try figuratively to keep up with the Joneses. And a move by one competitor leads to bad feelings between neighbors.

With their houses now complete, the four teams assess not only what they've done with their renovations but also what they think of the other three teams and their completed houses. Disa and Russell are squarely in the lead with three out of seven weekly wins and being on a roll, but them winning the house is not a guarantee as they all enter into what they learn is the final challenge: to redo in twenty-four hours what Jeremy and Cheryl see as the weakest renovation in their house. Charlotte and Sean are asked to redo their spare bedroom, the issues being to strip what is now painted over wallpaper, place something on an empty wall, and seal the headboard. Disa and Russell are asked to redo their living room, their issues being some finishes, including changing what is currently the high gloss paint job, and smoothing out the ceiling. Crystal and Ray are asked to redo their kitchen, basically finishing what they did not finish the first time around, including completing the tiling and grouting, installing some shelving and having a family photograph feature wall. Nina and PJ may have the biggest challenge in tying the two components of their great room together into one cohesive unit, those two rooms being the kitchen and living room, with the kitchen cabinet color, which was not their first choice, largely dictating what color scheme they can choose. The final twist in determining the winner is the third judge who will have an equal vote: the public, who Cameron takes through the four houses together so that each public voter sees the same thing at the same time, who do not have the history with the renovations that Jeremy and Cheryl have, but who are given "before" photographs to see from where the transformations began.