Michael's struggles against the visible color wheel continue, as he works on painting some wall decorations for his room. "I was attracted to the color red, because, psychologically, that's a color that makes you hungry and makes food taste better while you look at it." Which may well be true, although to my eyes, it looks the color red he's chosen is actually orange. And red or not, the only thing this color makes me hungry for is the sweet release of death. Is that on the menu? Andrea and her carpenter Blair are busy cutting slate and adding grout; as someone who watched his contractor painstaking apply grout to our remodeled bathroom last summer, I can tell you that there is no way, short of nudity, to make groutwork compelling television. That said, Andrea's finished product looks nice. Matt is wrapping up his leather flooring death march, and Goil has turned his fragile mind to the calming practice of painting stripes. Boy, things sure seem to be running smoothly right about now -- I wonder if we can get an example of designer-contractor tension, just for the sake of contrast. That'd be your cue, Carisa. She's designing her chef's room as an extension of the kitchen, and, in fairness to her, the banquette that's been built looks very solid. Ah, but since this is Carisa, nothing can be as it seems -- she's hectoring Carl the Carpenter to finish up his work on the benches in such a way that Carl is moved to observe "You know, I really do know what I'm doing," without looking up from his appointed task. Carisa rolls her eyes, because it wouldn't be a Wednesday night at 10 PM (9 PM, Central) without her looking heavenward when someone says something not to her liking. I suggest you work out your feelings, Carisa, by slagging on Carl via voice-over: "[Carl] is a perfectionist. So he can get distracted with details." And be sure to snipe about him to one of your fellow contestants. "He has spent the last hour making the benches," she whispers to Michael. And then, finally, could you go back to Carl and nag at him a little bit more? "I'd like to see this as close to done as possible tonight," Carisa says to Carl, as she rubs her face in exasperation. Excellent. Top-notch work there. By disappointing, Carisa, you never fail to disappoint.

The minute hand on the clock moves rapidly. Carpenters use nail guns. Andrea yawns. And the editors finally figure out how to use editing properly to show the passage of time. Five minutes remain in day one: Michael is hanging his red-but-probably-really-orange paintings up; Matt paints; Carisa paints; everyone, paint! Goil seems to have gotten a second-wind: he's outlining his grandiose plans for the next day, which include assembling a wall and a support system and doing much wood-cutting. Now, that's the young go-getter who caught America's fancy way back when. Ah, but the confidence is still MIA: "I'm usually able to turn around a project quickly. I can muscle it out. But now it seems my most fabulous power is diminishing." Sounds like someone has been watching a few too many episodes of Heroes lately.