‘Windy City Rehab’ host Alison Victoria Gramenos reflects on ‘hardest year’: ‘I’ve gone through hell’
“Windy City Rehab” host Alison Victoria Gramenos has turned to transcendental meditation after splitting from her business partner and being accused of fraud by unhappy homebuyers and investors.
“I used to sleep like nine, 10 hours, so I don’t sleep much anymore ... and then I can’t stop my mind from racing,” Gramenos said on a new episode of “HGTV’s House Party” talk show. “So I started doing transcendental meditation, which is saying your mantra no matter where you are, so I could be in my car. I could be on a noisy set. I could be wherever where it’s just like, bring it back. Focus also just on what I can control, not on the stuff I can’t control, because I can’t change what’s happening. But I can change my mindset, and instead of focusing on the negative, what if I — and I’ve always been this way — just go, this is going to be OK.”
The breakdown in the relationship between Gramenos and Season 1 contractor Donovan Eckhardt unfolded on Season 2 of HGTV’s “Windy City Rehab,” which aired in the fall. Gramenos used to purchase, renovate and flip Chicago homes with Eckhardt, but the pair ran into trouble with the city in 2019 after the Department of Buildings said it found multiple violations at their work sites. The general contractor license of Eckhardt’s Greymark Development Group expired in March 2020 and was not renewed.
Gramenos said she underwent mediation with Eckhardt in her family room. “My boyfriend mediated this because I was like, I’m done. It’s over, and it was like, let’s talk it out,” Gramenos told “House Party” hosts Brian Balthazar and Loren Ruch.
“I think that I am the best version of myself right now because I feel like I’ve learned so much about myself, my strength, my resilience. I’m not even close to being done with this,” Gramenos said. “On Season 1, I remembered I cried a lot, and I don’t cry, but I was crying a ton. I’m like, get the cameras away from me. Told production, don’t show me crying. This year I go, shoot it all. More real. And honestly, I’m not going to watch it. I can’t watch it again because it’s reliving my life. It’s PTSD.”
HGTV hasn’t announced if the popular “Windy City Rehab” will be renewed for a third season. Gramenos and Eckhardt, meanwhile, are facing fraud lawsuits from a Lincoln Square couple who purchased a home featured on Season 1; and a family of investors who said they were not properly repaid. Other suits involving the team from “Windy City Rehab” have been dropped. “I’ve gone through hell. I’m not even close to being back — at all,” Gramenos said.
But her TV career continues to flourish. Gramenos appears on Ty Pennington’s new HGTV series, “Ty Breaker,” which is scheduled to premiere at 8 p.m. Monday. She is participating on Season 2 of the network’s renovation competition “Rock the Block,” which is slated to premiere in March. She also recently narrated HGTV’s annual White House Christmas special. Balthazar and Ruch, meanwhile, interview and play games with HGTV personalities and superfans on “House Party,” which is available through the new Discovery Plus streaming service.
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