Nicole Curtis is back. Well, sort of. If you’ve been refreshing your DVR for the last year wondering where the hell the rest of Season 9 went, you aren’t alone. One minute she was tearing through a "crackhouse" in Detroit, and the next, the HGTV schedule was a ghost town.
Honestly, it’s been a weird ride for the self-proclaimed "queen of the salvage yard."
People always ask the same thing: Did Nicole Curtis get canceled? Is she okay? Why does it take ten years for her to finish a single house? The truth is way more complicated than a simple network dispute. It involves a "soul-crushing" personal setback, a spontaneous house purchase in Wyoming while stranded in Paris without a wallet, and a very deliberate choice to stop being "that little poor mommy in Minneapolis."
The Mystery of the Shelved Episodes
Let’s talk about the 2025 "vanishing act" first.
In June 2025, Rehab Addict finally returned after a massive hiatus. Fans were hyped. We got two episodes in, and then—poof. HGTV pulled the remaining shows. Rumors started flying immediately. Was there a fight with the network? Was she having another legal battle?
Actually, Nicole called the shots herself. She made what she called an "executive decision" to shelf the season until 2026. Why? Because she didn’t want to spend her entire summer stuck in a production edit bay. She basically looked at the schedule and decided her family time was worth more than a July premiere. It was a gutsy move that most reality stars wouldn't dare pull, but Nicole has never really played by the Hollywood (or HGTV) rulebook.
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The good news? The show is officially confirmed to return in February 2026. She’s currently finishing up the "recuts" to make sure the final product meets her (admittedly very high) standards.
That "Setback" That Rocked Her to the Core
Before the 2025 comeback, Nicole had been off the grid for about three years. She finally opened up recently about a "setback" that happened in her private life. She hasn't given us the gory details—Nicole is notoriously protective of her inner circle these days—but she described it as something that "rocked me to the core."
You’ve got to remember that this woman spent years in the headlines for a brutal, public custody battle over her son, Harper. It involved everything from public breastfeeding disputes at age three to allegations of being "unfit." It was messy. It was exhausting. And it clearly changed her.
Nowadays, you won’t see her kids on the show. She’s drawn a hard line in the sand. "I learned my lesson," she said. She’ll show you a 1920s subway tile all day long, but her kids' faces? Those are off-limits. It’s a level of privacy that feels rare in the "share-everything" era of social media, but after years of legal drama, can you really blame her?
The Wyoming "Paris" House
The new season features one of the most chaotic origin stories in Rehab Addict history.
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Picture this: Nicole is in Paris. She realizes mid-flight that she left her wallet at home. She lands in France with zero credit cards and about $72 in loose change. Most people would panic. Nicole? She took it as a sign to "clear her wish list."
While sitting there with no money and a bag of dollar bills, she bought a house in Wyoming sight-unseen.
It’s an 1890s property that had been the victim of a "bad flip." You know the type—cheap gray LVP flooring covering up historic wood, and "builder grade" everything. This project is a massive pivot for her. It’s 1,500 miles away from her usual Detroit and Minneapolis haunts. It’s so remote that it takes two hours just to get to a hardware store.
Dealing with the "Crackhouse"
While she was busy in Wyoming, her Detroit project was falling apart. Literally.
The house she’s working on for the 2026 return is a 1928 Detroit property she affectionately (or not so affectionately) calls "the crackhouse." While the sale was pending, squatters moved in. They ripped out the plumbing but kept using the bathrooms. There was no roof. Water was pouring into the structure for months.
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When she finally got inside, she found "needle closets" filled with drug paraphernalia. It was a disaster.
But this is where Nicole Curtis actually earns her "expert" title. Most flippers would have seen that mess and called the demolition crew. Nicole saw a built-in telephone stand and an original laundry chute and decided it was worth the nightmare. She’s a purist. If she can’t find the exact 1920s matching baseboard, she’ll wait months or years until she does. That’s why her projects take forever.
What Most People Get Wrong About Her
There’s this idea that Nicole is just a TV personality who shows up when the cameras are rolling.
In reality, she’s been running her own production company and a massive portfolio of Airbnbs. She’s not just a "host." She’s the general contractor, the designer, and the producer. She admitted she was "completely burned out" by 2020 because she was trying to do everything herself while being a single mom.
The 2026 version of Nicole Curtis is different. She’s 49 now. She’s more selective. She’s okay with the fact that she’s no longer the "scrappy kid in a pickup truck." She’s got a line of bathroom vanities hitting Walmart in 2025 and a rug collection that’s actually doing really well. She’s building a business empire that doesn’t require her to be on camera 24/7.
What to Do if You're Following Her Journey
If you’re a fan or a DIYer inspired by her "save the house" mantra, here are a few things to keep in mind based on how she operates now:
- Check the February 2026 Schedule: HGTV and Max will be dropping the remaining Season 9 episodes then. Don't expect a Season 10 right away—she works slow.
- Look for the "Purist" Details: If you’re renovating an old home, take a page from her book and look for salvaged materials. She’s proven that even "un-salvageable" houses usually have bones worth keeping if you have the patience.
- Respect the Boundary: She’s very active on Instagram, but don't expect updates on her kids or her dating life. She’s moved into a "work-only" public persona, which is probably why she seems much more at peace lately.
- Watch the Spinoffs: If you missed Lake House Rescue, go back and watch it. It’s a 700-square-foot cottage she jacked up 15 feet in the air to build a new foundation underneath. It’s probably the best technical look at how she handles structural engineering.
Nicole Curtis isn't gone; she just stopped letting the TV industry run her life. Whether you love her or think she's "too much," you can't deny that she's saved more historic architecture than almost anyone else in the business. And in February, we finally get to see if she managed to save that Detroit "crackhouse" after all.