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