MPDP appears in yet another navel-skimming t-shirt and low-rider velveteen pants. ["With a lace-up front. Who is she, Jon Bon Jovi?" -- Kim] They're in Wake Forest, North Carolina, which is just outside of Raleigh. Laurie, Vern, and Amy Wynn appear eating ice cream cones, and MPDP informs us that they will be "adding their good taste to the town's southern flavour." I always wonder whether the introductory narratives are written beforehand, and the cast directed to perform as necessary, or if they just get to the town, figure it out when they arrive, and write it afterward. I think it's the latter. Laurie is pretty pregnant at this point. MPDP says that they have two ambitious designers and only one carpenter (why they perpetuate this myth when the show freely admits that there's a second carpenter who's never seen onscreen, I do not know) and adds, "Boy, am I going to have my hands full!" With...what, exactly? How hard is it to nag people?

We see the two pairs of homeowners having a squirt-gun fight on the lawn. Dominic and Karine want their living room done: it's a large white space, almost devoid of architectural features except for a small fireplace surrounded with a crown molding-type mantel. There are lots of framed photos and tchotchkes on the mantel. The room is very sparsely furnished, and everything's kind of mismatched: there's an old-fashioned desk in dark wood with a broken pediment; it looks like it could actually be a piece with some value. There's a spindly rocking chair, a small bookcase with lots of books on it; and a country-ish microwave cart in white wood and knotty pine with the TV on top of it in the corner. There's a tired-looking three-seater sofa in a white/off-white striped fabric, with a fairly cruddy-looking coffee table in front of it. Karine says she'd like to see the coffee table used as firewood. The sofa's in the corner, opposite the TV. On each of the two walls the sofa touches, there is one picture; both of them are way too small for where they're placed. The carpet is beige. Karine describes the room's style as "Early Garage Sale." Won't argue. Dominic wants to see the microwave table gone, and adds that they're fond of the desk, but that it can be painted or whatever. It doesn't look like a piece I'd want painted. It's the nicest thing in the room by a long shot. Dominic also says that he's really fond of the ceiling fan, adding, "I've had this conversation with a few of your people," meaning, I guess, the Banyan production staff, and while he knows that ceiling fans almost always come down, says that he feels very strongly that it should stay up. Yeah, good luck with that. I tell Frink, "He's so getting Laurie."