The HGTV star also teams up with comedian Retta to renovate the winning property on ‘Scariest House in America’

NEED TO KNOW

• Alison Victoria has a habit of keeping odd trinkets from the winning home renovations on Ugliest House in America
• She revealed that she’s framed a glittery piece of drywall from season 1 and repurposed a swan-shaped faucet
• Victoria also talked about her dynamic with co-star Retta, whom she teams up with again on Scariest House in America

Alison Victoria has a habit of collecting things, especially mementos from the renovations she’s done on Ugliest House in America.

On the HGTV series, comedian Retta tours homes across the country hoping to be named the ugliest in the nation and win a $150,000 renovation led by Victoria, 44. During the season 8 finale, when a 1926 Miami home dubbed “The Mosaic Museum of Westeros” won, the interior designer revealed that she has saved a trinket from each of the renos, amassing a collection of home decor oddities. 

“I have one ugly from every ugly house we’ve ever done,” Victoria said on the episode, which aired Aug. 24, three weeks before its spooky spinoff, Scariest House in America, returned with season 3 on Sept. 18. As she explained, “I always wanna keep something. There’s something where I walk through the house and I tour it, and something just sticks out.” 

In that instance, it was a mosaic monkey head with its tongue sticking out removed from the entryway of the kitchen.

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While speaking to PEOPLE in October, Victoria says that “the takeaway just started that way where I was like, ‘I want a memory.’ It’s kind of like when I travel. Whenever I travel, I always get something and I bring it back and I put it on one of my open shelves and it’s a trinket or a tchotchke or a memory and it makes me smile.”

She also revealed how the habit started, and what she does with the “ugly” items she has saved since season 1 of Ugliest House. “I remember it was the very first episode. We did this brothel in this place called Soddy-Daisy,” she recalls of the Tennessee-based winner referred to as “The House of No Secrets” thanks to all the hidden cameras uncomfortably placed around the space. 

“I remember that this drywall had glitter in it because, I mean, look, it was a brothel,” she continues. “It was all crazy in there. And I took a piece of that sparkly drywall and I framed it. And then I took the faucet from this crazy bathroom with this tub that could fit 50 people in it. And it was this swan, and I used it in a project. And the takeaway just started that way where I was like, ‘I want a memory.’ “ 

In addition to repurposing the swan faucet for another project and framing the glittery drywall, the home reno expert says that “some of them I use.” 

“One of the episodes in Minnesota,” she says, referring to the season 5 winner in St. Cloud, “I took this weird bottle opener that was in their kitchen that was not human teeth, but they made it look like teeth. So that’s how I open my Coca-Cola. I mean, it’s funny.”

For Victoria, the Ugliest and Scariest House series are a reprieve for her, especially amid filming seasons of Windy City Rehab and Sin City Rehab, which returned with season 2 on Wednesday, Oct. 7. 

“That show is just laughter and fun,” she says of Scariest House. Although she has her hands in every design for the winning spaces, “there’s just a lightness to it. There’s nothing serious. I’m serious about the design, but we’re just having the best time of our lives.” 

When it comes to Retta, 56, she “has become such a good friend of mine, and what you guys get to see on this season of Scariest is probably going to be the funniest thing you’ve ever seen because you get to see what Retta and I do on our day off,” Victoria teases of her dynamic with the Parks and Recreation alum.

On past seasons of Scariest House, the two try to scare each other during the reno process, with Victoria previously telling PEOPLE that “neither of us like to be scared, but we’re willing to scare the s–t out of each other because we love being together.”

Whereas on Ugliest House, the humor usually comes from Victoria getting a rise out of Retta as they negotiate deals while shopping for antiques each season. “She wants to bury her head in the sand. She gets anxiety before we even go in. Even if I try to get $1 off, she’s mortified,” the HGTV star says of the comedian.

“I think people are going to really love that,” Victoria says of the Scariest House finale. As for the winner of season 3, which will be revealed on Friday, Oct. 23, “the design is out of control. I walk away from everyone and I’m like, ‘I’ve just outdone myself. I’ve outdone myself.’ “

The Scariest House in America season 3 finale airs Friday, Oct. 23 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV with the episode streaming the next day on HBO Max. Recent seasons of Ugliest House in America are also streaming on the app.

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