Tour HGTV's Alison Victoria's DREAM Home! (Exclusive)

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Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Oh my gosh, thank you so much for welcoming me.

00:07 - You're welcome.

00:08 - It is everything I thought it would be and more.

00:11 - Dreamy.

00:12 - It is the dreamiest place ever.

00:14 Let's run this place down by the numbers.

00:16 - It is four bedrooms, three and a half bath,

00:19 and not exposed to any elements,

00:22 'cause Chicago weather sucks.

00:24 - I know.

00:24 - It's brutal.

00:25 - But you'll never know it

00:26 'cause you never need to leave this place.

00:28 - I know.

00:29 - This was an old factory.

00:30 All the skylight, the original 80 foot skylight

00:32 was hand cranked, so with all the fumes

00:35 and that would go out.

00:36 But this is an industrial building.

00:37 - How big is this place?

00:39 - It's like right around 7,000 square feet.

00:41 - Does that feel comfortable for you?

00:42 - Yes.

00:43 - It's very big and I'm very small,

00:44 so it's like, never felt shorter.

00:46 From the minute you walk in and see the office

00:50 to the minute you hit the double French doors,

00:52 everything has a story.

00:54 - What is the story here?

00:55 - So I found these.

00:56 This was the first trip to Paris.

00:58 Day one I go to the flea market, I find these.

01:00 - It's come from a palace in Italy.

01:02 - Beautiful.

01:03 - They are 19th century and very good condition.

01:06 - And I always knew that these were interior doors,

01:09 but they were kind of the front,

01:11 so I could get away with all this old gilded gold

01:14 'cause the weather won't destroy it.

01:15 - Right.

01:16 - So this is kind of that first impression.

01:18 - What is the sexiest feature in this house?

01:21 - The courtyard, because it's unexpected.

01:24 I thought I want a space where I never have to worry

01:27 about weather ever again.

01:28 Well, I never have to do anything

01:30 except feel like I am in an Italian garden 24/7,

01:35 365 days a year, heated marble floors.

01:39 We got these, we just patinaed everything

01:41 to make it look really old.

01:43 Put these faux olive trees with the uplights on 'em.

01:46 - Faux trees.

01:47 - Everything in here is faux everything.

01:49 I don't wanna water anything.

01:51 - Low maintenance.

01:51 - I don't want to plant anything.

01:54 - She's here to relax people.

01:56 - This is the dining room.

01:58 The old bow trusses are what hold up this building,

02:01 and then the 80 foot skylight runs throughout.

02:04 So you get this natural light,

02:05 and then you have these ceiling heights

02:07 that are just crazy.

02:08 I had two of these in my old office.

02:11 And then had my carpenter already build onto it

02:15 and add the ladder.

02:17 - The idea to go with green.

02:18 Is this a favorite color of yours?

02:20 - Is it?

02:21 I always say bring in the green.

02:22 It's just such a refreshing color.

02:24 It brings life and energy.

02:26 This is a custom color that I named green with envy.

02:29 I knew I wanted brass.

02:30 I do all these hoods for my clients,

02:32 and I was like, this is my time.

02:34 It's my turn.

02:35 Fence all the way up and out through the roof,

02:37 'cause this is brick to brick.

02:38 This was something where I was like,

02:40 I have to have something that nobody else has.

02:42 I wanted the coffee maker and the wine dispenser

02:45 and this nook just for me.

02:49 - Most expensive feature in this house?

02:52 - The pool, spool.

02:53 I wanted a hot tub, so that's what this is.

02:56 It's cool because it looks like a water fountain feature

02:59 when you're not using it.

03:01 And then I have this as a hot tub when I want it.

03:03 It's a great place to do karaoke, by the way.

03:06 - Go-to song?

03:07 - To Be With You, Mr. Big.

03:08 ♪ I'm the one who wants to be with you ♪

03:12 ♪ Deep inside I hope you feel it too ♪

03:16 - How good do we sound?

03:17 - We sound excellent.

03:18 We're ready to take this band on the road, baby.

03:20 - It's just a good atrium.

03:21 On the other side of the fireplace wall,

03:23 I'm gonna have Ari build a giant bar

03:25 that takes advantage of all of these big, tall ceilings.

03:29 - This is an old piece from a library in Chicago

03:31 and it's like, you could see the history.

03:33 You could see the patina on it.

03:36 And then for Ari to come in and match it perfectly,

03:39 I added the mirror so everything's reflective in here.

03:41 - Yes, it feels so big and open.

03:43 - It is, it feels, it's insane.

03:46 I always dreamed of having a fireplace in my bedroom.

03:49 I wanted it to be sexy and feminine

03:52 and I just--

03:54 - Oh, the heat feels so nice. - Isn't it cool?

03:56 - Oh, it feels so good.

03:57 - And we're in the middle of summer, but--

03:58 - I know, but it feels great.

03:59 - We was going all night last night.

04:01 I wanted this bathroom to feel like you were in Mykonos.

04:05 I did waterproof plaster, heated floors.

04:08 This is a true wet room, so coming into the shower--

04:12 - No shower door.

04:13 - No shower door. - Nope, nope.

04:14 - It's a hole. - It's a wet room.

04:15 - And you can sing in here too.

04:16 Less is more and I just feel like,

04:19 I feel like I'm in a hotel getting ready.

04:22 - This is my favorite room in the house

04:25 'cause it's a theater.

04:28 - I can feel that.

04:29 - And I wanted it-- - The acoustics are amazing.

04:31 - The cushy carpet, wall to wall, the lower ceiling,

04:35 so you feel like you're really hugged by it.

04:37 - I love candy, I love France, so I had this sign made

04:41 so it looked like an old vintage sign for beers.

04:43 But this says candy in French.

04:45 I just wanted this to feel like you really were in--

04:48 - Wow. - A sexy theater

04:50 with the old Murano glass lights I got

04:53 at the flea market in Paris.

04:54 - So a lot of movie nights, I imagine,

04:56 go down in here. - Yeah, I hope so.

04:57 - Yes. - I mean, this is the only TV

04:59 in the house.

05:00 - Okay, is that intentional?

05:01 - Intentional.

05:01 I wanna be, if I'm in a room, I wanna be present in the room

05:05 with whoever I'm hanging out with

05:07 and I just want a dedicated space.

05:09 You see what I mean about you'll never leave?

05:11 I never wanna leave this house.

05:12 When I'm home, I wanna stay home

05:15 and I want people to come to me

05:16 and I think this house is gonna get them to do that.

05:20 - Do we have an official name for this?

05:22 - I'm calling it just what I did from the beginning.

05:25 Before I even did any work on it,

05:27 I thought I wanna build my dream home.

05:30 I should get a shirt.

05:31 I love moving.

05:34 I've moved 15 times.

05:36 One, two years.

05:38 - Tell me about the initial moment

05:39 where you're like, light bulb goes off,

05:41 I need to create my dream home.

05:43 - So I was actually selling everything in Chicago.

05:45 I was trying, it was like I had to stop the bleeding

05:48 because I was in kind of a mess of lawsuits

05:51 and was ready to leave the city.

05:53 This was the last thing to sell.

05:55 I had it for sale.

05:56 It would have been like the last tie

05:57 to the city that I grew up in.

06:00 It was like I'm starting over somewhere else.

06:02 I was gonna move out west and then I got an offer.

06:06 The guy wanted a longer close date

06:07 because he wanted to rezone it.

06:09 That was the moment where I go, wait a minute,

06:11 I can rezone this to be residential

06:13 and I said it's off the market and then it began.

06:17 What if I could create a live, work,

06:20 and love Chicago in my new house?

06:23 I'm gonna put it all on the line.

06:25 Everything I've ever wanted.

06:27 - On a scale of one to, am I unwell

06:31 for taking on a project of this magnitude?

06:33 - Yeah.

06:34 - Where does this house rank?

06:36 - This is probably the easiest renovation I've ever done.

06:40 - Easiest?

06:41 - It was seven months.

06:42 I knew exactly what I wanted

06:44 and when you know exactly what you want,

06:46 it takes less time to get there.

06:48 That's my opinion.

06:49 But financially it's been the hardest

06:52 because you can't just stop.

06:54 - Dollars wise, do you know what that even looks like?

06:57 - Roughly about 15,000 per trust.

06:59 - 15 grand?

07:02 - We're used to watching you on TV

07:04 helping people bring their visions to life.

07:06 So what was it like answering to yourself

07:10 as opposed to trying to help somebody else

07:11 create a dream project?

07:13 - It's easier when it's just you

07:14 because you don't have to do a check in.

07:16 Like, hey, what do you think?

07:17 Do you like this or this?

07:17 Which I never do.

07:19 I don't give my clients a choice.

07:20 I'm like, you like this.

07:21 You hired me to tell you what you like.

07:23 - I think there's a lot of people who are like,

07:26 separation is mandatory.

07:27 I wanna go to my office and then I wanna go home.

07:30 You literally live at your office now.

07:32 - But I literally love what I do.

07:33 - Oh good.

07:34 - Design is just my greatest love in life.

07:40 So when I see something that inspires me

07:42 or I start talking about design,

07:44 I just like, I light up.

07:46 There is no line for me because it all bleeds together

07:50 in the most beautiful way

07:51 and I couldn't ask for anything different.

07:54 - Tell me about the sacrifices

07:56 that you had to make financially

07:58 in order to pull off a place as beautiful as this.

08:00 - That's the real part of it 'cause I'm in it right now.

08:03 I had this big grand idea.

08:04 I go, oh, I'm gonna get this done.

08:06 I'm gonna use the money I got from my Vegas house.

08:08 I'm gonna put that in.

08:09 That'll be enough.

08:10 Then it kept adding up and I was like, oh wait,

08:12 no one can comp this building.

08:14 No one will give me a loan.

08:16 So I had to either say, I gotta get out now

08:19 or I have to ask for help.

08:21 And so I went to two of my friends.

08:24 They loaned me a total of 400,000.

08:26 I still owe that money back to them.

08:29 I don't have that now.

08:30 You know, and so this is not like some rich girl story

08:33 where I'm in my dream home.

08:34 Like I had to ask hard questions

08:37 and I had to do the research

08:39 and I had to constantly just go for it.

08:42 And then now I'm in a place where I'm like,

08:45 okay, well, you know what?

08:46 I worked my ass off to make money,

08:49 to pay my friends back, to live in this dream home

08:51 and I'll do just that.

08:54 But it's still a reality is this wouldn't have happened

08:57 without so many people.

08:59 And I'm just really grateful.

09:00 I'm gonna pinch myself every day that I live here.

09:02 Trust me.

09:03 (upbeat music)

09:05 (upbeat music)

09:08 (upbeat music)

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