On Tuesday, September 24, HGTV star Alison Victoria returns with a new season of Windy City Rehab. Victoria plans to make many changes, including introducing new team members.
In a recent interview with TV Insider, she shared her thoughts about these changes and the challenges ahead. Flipping homes is not easy, especially when managing and flipping 12 homes at once.
In Windy City Rehab, Victoria works on home renovation projects in Chicago for potential buyers. Across the four seasons of the show, she has faced various challenges, and Season 5 will be no exception. She does not work alone. Victoria emphasizes the importance of building her team.
She says, “Building a team for me was the most important thing for me to do. It’s nice to stay small. I don’t ever want to be managing hundreds of people, but I needed to grow my team to be able to grow my brand. If I can’t diversify and divide and conquer, I will get stuck.”
Victoria has a personal assistant named Britt, who has been her friend since childhood. Britt is among the new faces on the team this season.
“It’s a very fun, funny season of me putting together this team and finding new talent to add to the roster,” she shares. “You’re going to get to meet new faces and watch the business grow as I grow.”
Things Will Get Windy for the HGTV Star
The Season 5 premiere of Windy City Rehab features a family from Little Italy who is trusting Victoria with their dream home renovation, as stated in the press release.
The press release also hints that the renovation will “off to a rocky start due to lengthy permit delays,” but Victoria will work her magic as she usually does.
She plans to create a “timeless design plan to modernize the 1890s-era home with a chef’s kitchen while highlighting historic charm including Chicago common brick and original stained glass.”
The permit delay is just the beginning of the challenges she will face this season. Victoria is not only returning to flipping houses, but she also has to deal with issues like timelines, budget setbacks, and client expectations.
Additionally, she faces a tough decision about whether to sell her newly renovated Chicago home and Atlanta condo. “I don’t want to go through the banks. I don’t want to get construction loans. I want to do this on my own. So, what does that look like for me?
There is the question whether I want to sell something I love so much because it is part of my business. That is a difficult part of the business. Trying not to become attached to things,” she explains.
“There is a lot of drama because selling is not easy,” she adds. “I think the surprises that can happen at closing happen to people every day, and it happened to me.
You get to follow me on that horrible journey because that’s what it was, and you’ll have to see the rest of it. I vow to be very honest with the fans and viewers.
They are going to get to see the whole truth of the business as it unfolds for me to try to free up finances to get back into the flipping game.”
Still from Windy City Rehab (Credit: HGTV)
Despite the challenges, Victoria hints that there is “heart” in this season, describing it as a “breath of fresh air.”
“They are not all rescue stories, but there is so much heart to this season,” she states. “There are so many amazing designs this season. The transformations are so good. I’m beyond proud. I can’t wait to show people.”
The Season 5 premiere of Windy City Rehab airs tonight at 8:00 PM ET on HGTV and is available for streaming on Max.
The upcoming episodes are called “The Book of Carol.” They will finally bring best friends Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) back together after they said goodbye in The Walking Dead series finale.
McBride was supposed to be in the first season, but she could not go to the filming location in Europe. Now, Carol knows about Daryl’s kidnapping and will do everything she can to save him.
She will have a tough job ahead. Nicotero shared his vision for bioluminescent zombies, which he will show in the new season. He emphasized the use of practical effects for these glowing monsters.
“During the strike, I came back to the States last year, and we were talking about the bioluminescent zombies. And 70 percent of that was practical effects.
We had LED lights, and we also had this black light wildfire system where we would paint the backside of silicone prosthetics with a black light-activated bioluminescent paint.
And if you watch the outtakes of that scene, you’ll literally see my team standing there with black lights right on the zombie’s faces.”
Nicotero also used visual effects to make the cave walls glow. However, there were some challenges in bringing these zombies to life.
Daryl Dixon Faced Challenges with Bioluminescent Zombies
Practical effects look better on film, but they have some downsides when it comes to production. Nicotero explained that filming the new zombies could only happen for a few minutes at a time.
“We did stuff where we were able to make the inside of the mouth glow. So a lot of it was just hiding stuff, not only in the wardrobe, but then underneath the skin, painting the silicone appliances from underneath, painting some stuff on top.
Still from The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon (Credit: AMC+)
And then you knew that once you would charge it right before the take, you would have probably 120 seconds of really strong interactive light before it started to fade.
So there was a lot of running in, and charging it, and coming out, and then VFX just sort of amped it up.”
This hard work is important for a horror series that needs to keep changing and renewing itself. Daryl Dixon is a different show from its predecessor.
Filming on the coast of Europe even gives the series a fresh look. To stay interesting, Nicotero and his team keep pushing the limits, making this well-known territory engaging.
Fans can see these new zombies come to life when Daryl Dixon Season 2 starts on AMC on September 29.
