HGTV superstar designer Alison Victoria has had one hell of a couple of years. Things started out beautifully when Season 1 of her hit show, Windy City Rehab, debuted and garnered millions of viewers, but the situation for Victoria and her co-host, contractor Donovan Eckhardt, has been going seriously downhill from there. Now that the second season is almost over, fans are wondering whether or not they can expect Season 3, and Alison Victoria has shared her thoughts on the matter.
Windy City Rehab has been in the news nearly non-stop since its Season 1 debut in January 2019, unfortunately, most of that news has nothing to do with the luxury looks of the homes that Alison Victoria and Donovan Eckhardt built. Both have been hit with a number of lawsuits, stop work orders, and complaints over many of the homes seen on the series, and Victoria has had the added difficulty of realizing that Eckhardt wasn't handling the business side of their venture well, as he seemed to be stealing from their joint companies along with breaking several building rules in the city of Chicago.
This season has shown Victoria as she found out about all of the things that were going on, apparently without her knowledge, and confront Eckhardt several times. Eventually, Victoria had to make the difficult decision to part ways with her former contractor, but there are still many lawsuits and other legal actions pending against both her business and the houses she's worked on. So, will we get to see Alison Victoria put the pieces of her company back together in Season 3? The fifth and final episode of Season 2 (via Chicago Sun Times) may have the answer. When speaking about her future, Victoria said:
I will fight to clear my name and reputation that I've worked so hard for…and prove myself to the city of Chicago. I’ve gone through hell...I’m gonna keep fighting the fight. And what I want to keep doing is making everything around me beautiful...I’m not done doing that.
Throughout Season 2 of Windy City Rehab, Alison Victoria has made it clear that her main interest has always been designing and creating beautiful, functional homes for people to live in. Victoria has said that one of the reasons she began to work with Echkardt in her hometown of Chicago (after they met while working together on the HGTV series Kitchen Crashers) is because he seemed like he understood the financial and permit / building code side of the business in a way she didn't. She added that she simply trusted him with those issues, so that she could stay in her happy design place.
Now, though, that decision seems to have cost her dearly, as she's spent the past several months trying to clear up all of the legal issues behind the homes they worked on together, which has not been an easy road. Alison Victoria spoke out a few weeks ago about how difficult breaking up the partnership with Eckhardt has been, which has meant removing his name from every home they've worked on together and then dealing with any stop work orders, permit issues, or lawsuits on her own. Not to mention using her own money to try and finish whatever building projects she can.
It definitely sounds as though Alison Victoria is determined to fight her way through all the current troubles, so that she can come out the other side and keep designing. Whether or not she'll be doing that on a third season of Windy City Rehab is still up in the air, especially since she is still without the ability to take out any new building permits in Chicago. And, there's been no word from HGTV about a renewal.
Windy City Rehab airs tonight, on HGTV at 9 p.m. EST. For more on what to watch in the coming weeks, check out our fall premiere guide!
