Windy City Rehab Episodes That Didn't Land With Fans

"I want to make sure that this city is absolutely just sprinkled with beautiful homes that it really was once known for," interior designer Alison Victoria told Roku about the inspiration behind her HGTV smash "Windy City Rehab." "When I look at a potential property to rehab, it's usually about the potential. And that word is used a lot, but it is real here in the city, and really anywhere. So, you know, everything from curb appeal to square footage and to the potential to add more."

Victoria tried to add more potential across five seasons between 2019 and 2024, transforming dozens of homes across her hometown of Chicago, some for the better and, according to certain viewers, some very much for the worse. 

Indeed, thanks to shoddy craftsmanship, divisive decor, irritating clients, and an apparent lack of industry knowledge, "Windy City Rehab" was often must-see TV for all the wrong reasons. Here's a look at 12 episodes that didn't land with fans.

Following the second episode of the first "Windy City Rehab" season, "Lincoln Park Fourplex," several viewers on the Primetimer message board voiced their displeasure at her handiwork. She could have taken comfort that most of the criticisms were aimed at minor stuff.

"The TVs were installed way too high," one picky viewer pointed out about the living rooms in the historic property split into four separate homes. "Like a computer monitor, the television should be at eye level to a bit below," they went on to recommend before calling out the Property Brothers for committing the same faux pas.

"Drives me nuts as well," another concurred. "What do people do? Scootch way down on the couch so that they can look up at the screen? I would only put the TV over a fireplace if it were a newer, more horizontal fireplace (not a traditional mantle) where you could put the TV at a good height for viewing." Alison was also called out for painting over the original brickwork and her overuse of brass finishes. However, on a more serious matter, she and early business partner Donovan Eckhardt were also shamed for failing to spot that the initial fireplace was made of plywood.

In "Massive Giddings Street Rebuild," the fifth episode of the inaugural "Windy City Rehab" season, Alison repurposes an early 20th-century two-flat property in Lincoln Square into a single family home. And in doing so, she left one particular Chicagoan viewer in a fit of rage.

"This episode made me mad!" began the takedown of the host on the Primetimer forum. "She has absolutely no idea about Chicago historical architecture at all. The fact that she ripped up the beautiful built in made me actually moan in distress." The disgruntled message also took aim at Alison's removal of the crown molding, her penchant for painting everything white, and her claim to be a local, adding, "If she was, she'd be proclaiming her neighborhood hard." As it happens, she was indeed born and raised in the Windy City.

Still, this disgruntled reviewer fawned over Allison compared to the message that followed. "If I was Donovan, I'd stuff Alison behind some drywall and mud her in," came the rather extreme reaction. "She's extremely unlikeable and a constant complainer. I had to turn it off tonight." Here's a look at how much the divisive star is worth.

"Historical Headache," S1's sixth episode, "Windy City Rehab," takes place in the Ukrainian Village, where Alison and Donovan aim to give a landmarked cottage a new lease on life. This included ripping out existing features, losing a valuable kitchen sink, and drastically reducing the amount of natural sunlight. Unsurprisingly, Primetimer forum members weren't impressed.

"The house is a complete eyesore from the back and doesn't fit in at all anymore with the rest of homes in the area," remarked one disgruntled viewer who also took umbrage with the introduction of a stove hood and the prominence given to a chicken coop. "The rest of the house looked like everyone other house she's done. No character, trendy finishes and overpriced unnecessary pieces that add 'character.'"

Another naysayer also called out the disparity between what Alison says and what Alison actually does: "She goes on and on about wanting to save the historic integrity of these properties and then goes ahead and rips out the original window casings, floors and brick walls."

Alison didn't endear herself to cat lovers in the eighth episode of "Windy City Rehab" S1, "Historic Pain or Economic Gain," while working on a 19th century landmark property in Wicker Park. The way she dismissed its occupants didn't go down particularly well, either.

"That renter probably had lived there for longer than you have been alive and you had to go to court to evict an elderly person to build your ugly open concept house," one furious Primetimer forum user said, referring to Alison's methods. "When they were mocking the amount of cat hair in the apartment, I wanted to cry."

Another viewer concurred, noting Alison's mean girl attitude toward other people's tastes. "Who are you to make fun of someone's home just because it doesn't fit with your ridiculous 'design' aesthetic?" they reasoned. "Not everyone wants gray walls."

In the S2 premiere "Spend More to Make More,' Alison and Donovan were refused a loan for a new project, forcing the pair to revisit an existing house they forgot about. And this lack of general business nous seemed to rub several viewers up the wrong way.

"I just can't wrap my head around Alison being so hands-off when it comes to money and tracking the progress of these projects," one bewildered Redditer said. "Not knowing your business partner already spent over $700K on a house that's roughly 50% done? Insane," stated another.

Indeed, many questioned whether Alison — who has a much more amicable working relationship with Mike Holmes — was simply using the show as propaganda. After all, by this point, the pair were already embroiled in a bitter legal battle over financial irregularities, something later episodes would address. "They're trying to make her the hero and victim in the same breath and it comes off really false," one viewer remarked. "I don't doubt some shady s*** went down — but it doesn't seem like real life fits the Alison good, Donovan bad dichotomy that they're trying to draw." 

In the second episode of Windy City Rehab" S2, "Bridgeport or Bust," Alison renovates a home in an up-and-coming neighborhood, believing that her efforts will help her ingratiate herself into the community. But the locals' reaction was the same as the audience's, so this project backfired.

Indeed, while viewers had little problem with the interior, several voiced disdain at the outside. "Another black house," one user on Fans of Reality TV wrote, referring to Alison's apparent favorite exterior color. "This time it looks ugly. I don't mind the black, but the all-black brick wall, with the black light fixtures, with the matte black door, and black columns on the front porch, no, not a fan." "I hated all that black on the face of the house," another complained. "It didn't look 'sexy' as she put it, it looked dreary and ugly. I liked the original, old brick color."

However, for some fans, the darkest point was the attitude of Alison's partner-in-crime, who didn't exactly share her belief in community spirit. "Donovan whining in the beginning about not wanting to do $800,000 houses because they weren't worth it made me roll my eyes," wrote one such critic.

Following the S3 opener "Time Is Not On My Side," HGTV invited viewers to tweet their thoughts on Alison's attempts to renovate a historical four-unit apartment. But the social media team wished they'd stayed quiet, judging by the scathing responses that followed.

The client was impressed with the finished product, because, in something of a rarity, Alison — who was once married to insurance agent Luke Harding — stick to the budget. But everything from the impracticality of the bathroom pedestal sinks to the style of the kitchen cabinets came under fire on X.

In fact, one viewer was so shocked by the redo that they wondered whether Alison and co. were deliberately trolling audiences: ""Windy City Rehab' has to be a satirical show right?" they posted. "There is no way this lady is excited about the renovations she is signing off on. Those islands are crazy."

"New Build, Old Problems," the second episode of S3, was a landmark moment in the show's history. It was the last time Alison worked on a property she'd co-owned with Donovan following a public fallout with the contractor over alleged financial mishandling. Many viewers pointed out that the redo wasn't exactly plain sailing.

With Alison hampered by time and budget constraints, the six-bedroom property lacked the finishing touches you'd expect from such a seasoned pro. "Okay ... so the antique, now painted, mantle is installed and she's just realized there's no firebox?," one viewer tweeted (via Meaww) about one particular glaring error.

Another disgruntled fan took to the same social media platform to point out another mistake and offer advice: "Maybe if Alison Victoria spent more time supervising her projects and less time in the antiques store, she might have noticed that the water meter was in the wrong place." To stick the knife in further, one viewer took a potshot at the host's talents in general: "Is it just me or are Alison Victoria's designs tacky and kind of ugly a lot of the time?" Here's a look at other HGTV couples with the worst chemistry.

Alison's apparent inability to understand the legalities of construction came back to bite her once again in the sixth episode of S4, "An Expensive Exit." Here, her plans to work her magic on a condo's upper floors in just four months were thrown into chaos when she learns of a city code that will eat into both her time and budget.

Not every viewer had sympathy, though. "No surprise Alison is clueless about permits," one Primetimer forum user wrote before sarcastically assuming the mindset of the HGTV star: "Still. I'm going shopping! Because some props will make this project. And make my clients forget this year of gratuitous torture because of all the statement pieces I put in their house."

On something of a roll, the same viewer also called the work on the stairs "fugly," questioned the placement of a full-sized bed in the room of a child who wasn't even in high school, and blasted the homeowners for their naivety. They did admit to enjoying 25 percent of the episode, but that was attributed to the picturesque shots of the Windy City. Here's a look at how the show became one of HGTV's messiest scandals.

The title of the fifth "Windy City Rehab" season's tenth episode, "No Time to Wait," didn't relate to the kind of time constraints that typically plague Alison and co. Instead, it referenced that she had to renovate a house for a client who was gradually losing her sight.

A noble project, but according to Redditors, the host didn't pull it off. "That front parlor was not good," one unimpressed viewer said, singling out the clash between the fake green tiles around the fireplace and the blue walls. "It also seemed like a bad idea to put a sliver-thin glass top coffee table in the middle of the room when the HO has impaired vision!," they added.

Another concurred with the latter, recalling their own experiences: "When my grandfather was going blind, we made all edges as flat as possible so if he collided with something it wouldn't hurt as much, since there was a higher chance of it happening more than once. I can't imagine a glass top." As well as appearing to ignore health and safety guidelines, Alison was also said to have ignored the client's husband's wishes: "[He] said at the start that he needed a TV in the new expanded family room, but instead Alison removed windows ... for a shelving unit. Still no good place to put the TV in the room."

In the fourth episode of S5, Alison revisits the 140-year-old property that has caused her a whole host of headaches in the past. And for several viewers, her clients this time round had a similar effect.

"I JUST finished this episode and those men just p***ed me off the entire time," one aggrieved viewer opened their takedown of 'Second Time's a Charm' on Reddit, going on to theorize that they were simply using the HGTV cameras to validate the future extortionate price they'd charge for rent. "And to see those men be basically incompetent on budget (don't even get me started on the funding issues) and their very very unreasonable time line, I felt bad for Victoria having to deal with men who were trying to get a quick buck."

The participants, who later put the house on the market in a listing which also went down on the same social media platform like a lead balloon, were also criticized for their personal design choices. "The owner had some odd ideas, and also basically threw away the original staircase materials, which Alison told him to keep so they could be put back in," remarked another unimpressed viewer.

In the series finale of "Windy City Rehab," S5's "First Home, Forever Home," Alison tried to spruce up a house that had been occupied for 17 years. However, all her plans fell apart once it was discovered the property sat on a landmarked street.

Several viewers took to the Primetimer forum to voice disbelief that this wasn't already known. They weren't much kinder about the design choices, either. "Thought those homeowners were really naive and unrealistic in the finishes they picked out for that job," one user remarked. "And I thought the new paint job on the outside of the home was ugly."

Another viewer, who argued that the property looked so much better before the HGTV cameras rolled up, also claimed that the inside of the house was just as unflattering: "They totally ruined the house for $640k. If they would have picked different paint colors, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but the black and white this house, looks just soulless." Interestingly, Alison later served as a renovator and producer of, "Ugliest House in America." Here's a look at sad details about the HGTV regular.