ROGERS PARK — A famous Rogers Park house is being featured on HGTV with the chance to be completely renovated.
The neighborhood’s Candyland House is appearing in Season 7 of “Ugliest House In America,” said homeowners and couple Joe Bergantino and Ricky Gonzalez.
Bergantino and Gonzalez were contacted by somebody from HGTV in late 2024 about an opportunity for their house to be on a show, but they didn’t know what show, they told Block Club.
When they learned it was for “Ugliest House in America,” “of course, we started laughing,” Gonzalez said.
“We don’t think that the exterior of the house is ugly at all,” Bergantino said. “We love it, but the inside, yeah, definitely needs some work.”
The HGTV show follows host Retta as she tours “ugly” houses across the country before one is selected to receive a $150,000 renovation completed by “Sin City Rehab” designer Alison Victoria.
This season’s first episode — which features the Candyland house, according to Bergantino and Gonzalez — premiered Wednesday and is now available to stream at HBO Max and discovery+.
Ricky Gonzalez and Joe Bergantino stand on the porch of Rogers Park’s Candyland House, which they bought in 2022. Credit: Courtesy Joe Bergantino
Bergantino and Gonzalez bought the pastel-colored Victorian at 1525 W. Pratt Blvd. in 2022, and they have been documenting the restoration on their Instagram account. The house is a neighborhood icon, and the couple promised the prior owners that they’d “keep the funkiness.”
Even if the Candyland House receives the renovation at the end of the season, they would maintain the home’s character, the couple said.
“We’re keeping true to it, and no chance in hell would the renovation ever be black, white, gray or beige,” Bergantino said.
The Candyland House, which was built in 1891, was the longtime home of artists Jackie Seiden and the late Don Seiden. The couple decorated virtually every part of the house in pastel hues, even infusing some of the interiors with glitter-specked paint.
The Seiden family put the house up for sale in 2021, causing some to worry if the future owners would keep the vibrant and eclectic color scheme.
Every part of the Candyland House is brightly colored, including the deck table and shutters. Credit: Zillow
In the Candyland House, everything is pastel colored, including the blinds and radiator. Credit: Zillow
The episode was filmed in June, just months after Bergantino and Gonzalez were told they had been picked to be on the show, they said.
The show’s camera crew were in the home for 12 hours, but the episode segment will be whittled down to about five minutes, which means even Bergantino and Gonzalez don’t know exactly what viewers will get a glimpse of.
“Probably both of the bathrooms,” Bergantino said.
As soon as they learned the Candyland House would be featured on the show, the couple stopped the renovations they were working on, they said.
The show didn’t prohibit them from working on their home, but they figured the best chance of being selected for the renovations was to not make the house look any better, the couple said.
In July, the couple hinted on their Instagram page that they were working on something behind the scenes, which is why they hadn’t been posting as much. The show was that reason, they said.
Bergantino and Gonzalez said it was quite the change to suddenly have time for other things after having gotten used to spending all their free time working on the house.
“For the past year, I had time to learn how to paint, and we both got really into 3D printing,” Gonzalez said. “We just had all this time that we haven’t had in years to pick up all these other hobbies.”
Without being selected for the renovation from the show, Bergantino and Gonzalez estimated it would take them 10 years to renovate everything they want in the house. Receiving the renovation means it would take only six weeks.
“Now that we’ve had a taste of free time again, being able to get back to that some sort of semblance of balance where not everything is construction, that would be great,” Bergantino said.
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