“Windy City Rehab” took on a whole new meaning Tuesday night when star Alison Victoria debuted “Alison’s Dream House.”
The spinoff series takes viewers along for the wild ride that will transform Victoria’s 6,250-square-foot Chicago office into the “sexiest live/work dream home I could ever imagine,” she says during episode one.
The Parisian-inspired 4 bedroom, 3 1/2-bath dwelling will feature everything Victoria said she has wanted in a home, including a sky-light topped atrium where the celebrity designer can enjoy Chicago all year long and not have to suffer the city’s harsh winter weather, a $53,000 indoor spa pool (yes, a spool), home gym, sprawling bedroom suite, a 6-foot tall range hood in her state-of-the-art kitchen, and streamlined office where she and her team will continue to operate Alison Victoria Interiors.
“The goal is never having to leave home,” Victoria muses.
Victoria purchased the 1930-eras building in Chicago several ago for $370,000 and in the episode she revealed that she plans to spend more than $1.2 million for the total gut/renovation of the site, which was re-zoned for residential. While she reveals she has some upfront cash for the project, she notes she’s funding the work by herself, and “I don’t have $1.2 million, so I’m just trying to figure it out.”
Funding for the entire project also hinges on the sale of her Atlanta condo, which Victoria says she needs to sell for close to $1 million. There’s urgency here, as Victoria’s lease on her tony Gold Coast apartment expired and she may be without a home in Chicago if the renovation is not completed on time. (She currently has a home in Las Vegas, which she re-designed earlier this season on “Windy City Rehab.”)
The series finds Victoria emerging from the legal drama of the past several years during the course of “Windy City Live.”
“Obviously, dealing with everything, and the pandemic, I wanted to see if I truly wanted to continue doing what I was doing professionally,” Victoria told the Sun-Times in May, describing a sabbatical she took to France to gain a fresh, new perspective on her life and business.
The home will be filled with unique design elements Alison purchased on her many trips to Paris, her happy place on earth, where she scours antique shops, she explained in that same Sun-Times interview. During Tuesday’s episode, Victoria is shown on her Parisian shopping trip where she plunks town what are undoubtedly some hefty sums for towering 19th century gold-leafed interior doors from a palace in Italy, a 19th century marble French fireplace, and vintage WWI-era upholstered chairs similar to those at the famed Maxim’s de Paris “that will look amazing around my dining table,” she explains.
“When I’m done with this place, there will be nothing like it in Chicago,” Victoria says of her dream home.
We’ll have to tune in to the remaining episodes to see for ourselves.
“Windy City Rehab: Alison’s Dream Home” airs at 8 p.m Tuesdays on HGTV. Episode one is streaming now.
