Good Bones isn't your average home renovation show.
Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak Hawk, the mother-daughter team you've seen on HGTV,
aren't just trying to show the world how well they can rehab a house, they want to transform
the entire community of Indianapolis.
Here's the truth about Good Bones.
Karen and Mina manage to make rehabbing houses look fun and easy, even when things get nasty.
While it might seem exciting to turn a run-down house into a showpiece, in reality, things
get downright nauseating.
Mina revealed to IndyStar just how gross things can get.
"It's always shocking.
The houses we go in, there's so much poop.
It always amazes me.
Human and animal poop."
Because the houses are often so disgusting, Karen and Mina like taking on houses that
have had a fire.
Fire burns up some of the poop, making their jobs a little easier.
Mina said that the house they fixed up in the pilot episode of Good Bones had had a
fire, but was hiding another weird surprise.
"It also had a chest freezer that was full and hadn't had the power to it in at least
six months.
We had to empty it to take the weight out to carry it upstairs.
It was full of slabs of meat.
I 100 percent thought there'd be at least one frozen cat."
People who don't know a lot about Karen and Mina might mistake them for house flippers,
but they are adamant that it's not what they're about.
House flipping tends to be purely a business venture, but Karen and Mina have bigger goals
than just making money.
Instead of branding themselves as house flippers, they see themselves as neighborhood rehabilitators.
Karen told IndyStar,
"We truly are rehabbing neighborhoods.
If we were flipping, we wouldn't strip down to studs, install new electrical, new HVAC,
new plumbing or whatever else needs to be done.
This is rehab.
These houses need a good 12-step program."
"We need to make it more functional."
"We want energy!"
They are also excited about the opportunities that they are able to bring to people in Indianapolis.
Karen told PopSugar,
"We have this opportunity for local people to apply their trade and grow in their chosen
career, which is a beautiful thing to watch."
Mina hopes that the exposure Good Bones has given Indianapolis helps other small businesses
in the area grow.
Before starting the home renovation company Two Chicks and a Hammer with her daughter,
Karen had a successful career as an attorney.
When they landed Good Bones, she had to take a step back from practicing law in order to
focus on the business, although she retained a few of her clients.
The fact that she's a lawyer, a wife, and a mom might make it seem that Laine is totally
straightlaced and serious, but it turns out that she has a wild side.
She told Marketplace Events,
"Most people are surprised to find that I have a tattoo that goes from the nape of my
neck, covers my back, and extends down the backs of my thighs."
The lawyer-turned-house rehabber also knows how to throw a good party.
Her rules for get-togethers are simple: "Fun people.
Easy-to-eat food.
Music.
Adult beverages."
Wrap parties for Good Bones must be a blast if Karen has a hand in planning them.
Once you know about Karen's wild streak, it kind of makes sense that Mina considers herself
to be the more responsible of the two.
Mina told the Los Angeles Times, quote, "She's the kid, and I'm the mom," and says her mom
has a "hippie personality."
Working so closely together is bound to put a strain on any relationship, but, fortunately,
the mother and daughter have a tight enough bond that they're able to make it work.
That doesn't mean it's easy, though.
The two have very different personalities, which sometimes leads to friction.
Karen told PopSugar,
"Any mother-daughter duo who says they'd love to work together only say that because they
haven't done it!"
The two manage to work past their differences, though, and have learned how to make their
skill sets "mesh."
Karen said,
"I don't get in her way, and she stops me from doing stupid things."
Mina said that working with a relative is what makes a successful partnership.
"There's a level of trust you don't get even with a lifelong friend, you can't get that
unless you're with family."
"I feel like you're not really dressed to play with this right now, let's maybe finish
our walkthrough and then you can come back and get it later."
"Come here, I want to hug you!"
When you watch Good Bones, it's easy to assume that Karen and Mina are trained contractors
with decades of experience, but that isn't the case.
Before they ever started their first project, Mina was working as a waitress at Pizzology
and Karen was a defense attorney.
Neither of their jobs did much to prepare the mother and daughter team for rehabbing
homes.
When they decided to rehab their first house, they taught themselves how to do it.
Mina told Indianapolis Monthly,
"Most of it we learned along the way.
I read the directions for flooring and putting up light fixtures.
I watched YouTube to figure out how to tile."
According to her, the easiest thing to learn how to do was the demolition, observing that
breaking things just comes naturally.
The fact that Karen and Mina learned how to do everything on their own makes their incredible
success even more impressive.
Good Bones is set in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Karen and Mina have no plans on branching
out from that location.
Karen told Indianapolis Monthly,
"It's important to me to stay in the neighborhood where we live.
If you do one house in one ZIP code, and another in another ZIP code, you don't have any effect
on the neighborhood."
Mina said that she and her mother "received awesome feedback from locals" after the show
hit the air.
she told Visit Indy,
"People seem to really love how the city is being showcased.
We also know of at least two people who have come to visit Indy only because they saw the
show and loved it, so it's bringing new people to our incredible city."
Karen and Mina aren't just passionate about what they do, they're also fiercely committed
to their business.
These two don't let anything get in their way.
Contrary to what people might think, starring in an HGTV show like Good Bones doesn't exactly
make you rich overnight.
Karen told Indianapolis Monthly that, quote, "early on, for the talent, there is very little
money in TV."
The profits made from the show go straight back into the business, going towards fixing
up the next house.
Starting up the business required both Karen and Mina to take out mortgages and to ask
their family to invest in the company.
An even bigger challenge came when Karen's husband was diagnosed with cancer.
While filming the show, she also supported her husband through his treatments, which
included surgery.
You'd think that running a successful business and starring on a hit reality TV show would
mean that people would respect you, but, nope, Karen and Mina still have to deal with a lot
of sexism.
The Good Bones stars have proved over and over again that they're not afraid of hard
work, but they still have to demand respect from men.
Karen told IndyStar,
"There have been a few occasions where the boys sass me.
We're dealing with guys in their 50s who have been doing this a long time…They will get
a little mouthy, and I can't let that go because then they will not respect me.
If I'm your boss, you don't get to be disrespectful."
Mina's advice for getting through it?
"Don't try to be a lady.
You've got to be real, not afraid.
You've got to get your hands dirty along with everyone else."
"I know you need a little rest."
"Okay."
Mina didn't set out to have a television show.
In fact, she was so surprised when she and her mom first caught the attention of a casting
agent that she thought she was being scammed.
She told PopSugar,
"She kept calling my cell phone, and I thought it was someone messing with me first and trying
to get our business information."
Karen, on the other hand, had secret dreams of being in the spotlight.
After they had already landed Good Bones, she came across a letter that she had written
to HGTV several years before telling the network that they should make a show about Two Chicks
and a Hammer.
While their eventual discovery came years later and had nothing to do with the letter
Laine wrote, it does serve as proof that she knew she and her daughter were meant to be
on TV.
Good Bones has helped to make Two Chicks and a Hammer a lot more successful, but it has
also significantly increased their workload.
Karen told No Mean City,
"Everything is harder.
It's like having two full-time jobs, filming 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day while we're getting
our work done."
The show has complicated their lives in more ways than one.
Karen and Mina aren't just working longer hours, but have also found themselves racing
against the clock to expand Two Chicks and a Hammer.
HGTV doesn't foot the bill for the houses Two Chicks and a Hammer rehabs, so they have
to make sure they have enough money to rehab enough houses for an entire season.
Karen said,
"Mina will tell you that we put about $150,000-$180,000 into each house.
So if we do 10 houses, that's $1.5 million to $1.8 million.
And we didn't have that in our pockets, so that growth spurt was up."
Karen and Mina make a perfect TV team, but they would also love to work with other big
names in the business.
The fiery-haired Karen said that she would love to have the chance to pair up with Mike
Holmes, the star of Holmes on Homes.
She told the Indianapolis Home Show,
"I have a soft spot for gingers, and I think I could learn a thing or two from him."
Mina said that the HGTV star she'd most like to work with is Clint Harp, who first became
known as a craftsman on the mega-popular Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines before landing
his own show on the DIY network, Wood Work.
Mina told Marketplace Events,
"He's just the nicest human alive and super-talented and funny."
While we all want Karen and Mina to continue working together on Good Bones for years to
come, if they ever do decide to part ways, it could be interesting to see them work with
one of these home renovation TV pros.
In 2019, Karen announced that she was putting down her hammer and stepping away from the
family business.
The announcement was made in a post on the Two Chicks and a Hammer Instagram account,
which read,
"After a long career of practicing law and revitalizing homes and neighborhoods, Karen
is retiring from Two Chicks and a Hammer.
She will still be part of the HGTV show Good Bones!"
While stepping back from the business was a big change, Mina took it in stride.
The blow was no doubt softened by the fact that leaving Two Chicks and a Hammer gave
Karen more time to work on DIY projects for Good Bones.
Mina wrote in an Instagram post,
"I can't say thanks to mom enough for her help in creating Two Chicks and a Hammer.
I can say, without a doubt, it wouldn't have been possible without her and not nearly as
fun."
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