'Windy City Rehab' Star Alison Victoria Once Flipped Her Old Home in Chicago — Facts about the Designer

"Windy City Rehab" star Alison Victoria found her passion for restoring houses by working on her own home, and is now one of the most successful TV hosts.

Fans of "Windy City Rehab" love the chemistry between Alison Victoria and her co-host Donovan Eckhardt, as many seem to believe that the two are a real-life couple.

Victoria is a happily married woman, but she's not to married to Eckhardt, her husband is Luke Harding, with whom she shares a gorgeous little girl. Eckhardt is also married, and he has two adorable daughters he shares with his wife of 8 years. Unfortunately, Victoria and Eckhardt's business relationship seems to have run into trouble, and the two will no longer be working together.

Victoria has revealed that she has big dreams, and one of them is to restore houses in Paris, where she'd love to live

LAWSUITS

"Windy City Rehab" is the target of several lawsuits, as buyers of some of the restored homes allegedly found that the quality of the construction workmanship did not match the beauty of Victoria's interior design. Some of the complaints included badly installed windows and door, electric circuits not up to code, leaks, and crumbling walls.

The lawsuits name Victoria as a co-defendant, but the designer has stated that she was not aware of the details of the construction-side of the process, or the shoddy work described. The situation has been very upsetting for Victoria, and spells the end of her collaboration with Eckhardt, but not her work in "Windy City Rehab."

CHICAGO FOREVER

Victoria was born and bred in Chicago, and it was her father who first taught her to love and cherish the Windy City's venerable architectonic heritage. He would take the young Victoria and the rest of the family on long drives around Chicago, and that was when she started dreaming of living in one of those beautiful historic homes.

Victoria went to college in Las Vegas, at the University of Nevada where she studied design. After graduation, she landed a job at Christopher Homes as a designer, where she quickly became a valued employee. But her heart was still in Chicago, and that is where she returned. Victoria bought an old run-down historic house in Wicker Park and started making her dream come true.

RESTORATION

Victoria's hard work paid off. Her Wicker Park home became a show-stopper, literally. Whereas people would stride by the near-derelict house before the restoration, it started to be a stopping spot for locals and tourists who would photograph the beautifully restored house. The restoration ignited Victoria's ambition to work on more of old Chicago's beautiful houses, and bring them back to their former glory.

The Wicker Park house became her calling card, and she worked on "Kitchen Crashers," before landing her own HGTV show, "Windy City Rehab." In the show, which was an immediate hit, Victoria teams up with contractor Eckhardt to buy and restore rundown vintage houses in Chicago's historic neighborhoods. Between them, they transform the neglected beauties and make them into desirable and valuable real estate.

THE ULTIMATE AMBITION

Victoria has revealed that she has big dreams, and one of them is to restore houses in Paris, where she'd love to live. The designer has admitted that she binge-watches HGTV's "House Hunters International," and would love to have the opportunity to tackle restorations in exotic settings.

Despite all the controversy, "Windy City Rehab" will be back at HGTV on September 15, 2020, with brand new 90 minutes episodes, despite the fact that the city of Chicago issued 12 Stop Work Orders on properties associated with WCR in 2019.

In addition to several violations of city codes, the neighborhoods in which the show is said to be restoring homes have also protested the disruption occasioned by the filming.

Most of the Stop Work Orders against the show have been lifted, and Victoria will be back at work beautifying Chicago, and hopefully, this time around things will run smoothly.