Back in early 2016, HGTV debuted a new show starring former lawyer Karen E. Laine and
her daughter, Mina Starsiak Hawk.
"Good Bones" became an instant hit, but when Laine announced her semi-retirement ahead
of the 2021 season, the focus shifted to her daughter.
Here's what Mina is all about.
The story of "Good Bones" begins with Starsiak Hawk's college graduation in 2007.
As she explained to People, after earning a bachelor's degree in general studies she
had no idea what she wanted to do next, adding,
"I didn't want to work 9 to 5 in a cubicle, but I wanted to do something grown up, because
all my friends were getting accounting jobs and doing big kid things.
So, I decided to buy a house."
According to USA Today, Starsiak Hawk plunked down just over $37,000 for an affordable fixer-upper,
and enlisted her mom to help renovate.
There was one small catch, though: neither of them had ever done any renovations before.
She explained,
"We just learned as we went.
I read directions on how to install flooring and watched online videos about putting up tile.
It was really trial and error."
The renovation was a success - and Starsiak Hawk launched her career when she and her
mother founded their own contracting company, Two Chicks and a Hammer.
Starsiak Hawk and mom Laine had been successfully renovating homes in their native Indianapolis
for a few years when they were contacted about the possibility of starring on their own HGTV show.
And as Starsiak Hawk explained to PopSugar, when a casting agent reached out on Facebook,
she was more than a little skeptical.
She said,
"[The agent] kept calling my cell phone, and I thought it was someone messing with me first
and trying to get our business information."
Once they realized the call was legit, there wasn't a whole lot of hesitation before the
duo agreed to do the show.
She shared,
"We were like, 'Sounds like a party.
Let's do it!'"
"Death to a caterpillar is birth to a butterfly.
So now we just have to give birth to our butterfly."
Unbeknownst to Mina, her mother had long harbored an ambition to showcase her trade on HGTV.
Starsiak Hawk revealed,
"Mom was cleaning out something and found a letter that she had written to HGTV years
ago saying, 'You should make a show about us!'"
"We're just a couple likeable gingers."
As viewers of the show are well aware, Starsiak Hawk and Laine don't always see eye to eye.
But as the younger of the two explained to USA Today, that's all part of the unique dynamic between them.
Characterizing her mother as the, quote, "hippy-dippy dreamer" of the pair, she evidenced the trait
by pointing to the mounted deer head hanging in Laine's living room.
"People have been telling me how weird I am, having done that, and now I see these things
everywhere so I don't think I'm that weird anymore."
Starsiak Hawk, on the other hand, views herself as the "sieve" through which her mom's outlandish
design schemes can filter, resulting in Laine's raw creativity mixed with her daughter's practicality.
Describing the role reversal, Laine joked,
"Yeah, I don't know how this happened to her.
I raised her to be a free spirit, and she's totally motivated and conservative.
I've failed as a mother!"
Starsiak Hawk has been married to her husband Steve since 2016, having first been introduced
by friends, via Facebook.
As she recalled to Country Living, she and her quote, "stunningly handsome" future husband
made plans to get together.
But when they finally did, it was as part of a group, watching a basketball game.
According to Starsiak Hawk, Steve ignored her and even played wingman in order for his
friend to make a move on Mina.
Still, she gave him another chance, texting him:
"We're going to try this again tomorrow - you get one more shot."
While that second date presumably went much better, the couple's road to the altar was a bumpy one.
Laine said of her son-in-law,
"They broke up for a while because he behaved really badly - in a phenomenally bad way."
Looking back, Starsiak Hawk sees the challenges they experienced as ultimately strengthening
their relationship.
She said,
"We have both committed to working through that."
In 2018, Steve announced that Starsiak Hawk had given birth to the couple's first child, Jack.
But when they began trying for a second child, the couple encountered some serious infertility issues.
In a series of posts on Instagram Story, Starsiak Hawk revealed that their attempt at IVF had failed.
She shared,
"We were told another round of IVF would be unsuccessful and our only option for me to
carry another baby would be with a donor egg.
[…] I don't have high hopes it will result in anything different."
Ultimately, Starsiak Hawk described to People how they tried a "Hail Mary" procedure called
intrauterine insemination - which surprisingly resulted in pregnancy.
"I'm pregnant."
"Are you for real?"
"Yeah.
I was like trying to think of a fun way to tell you and I can't…"
"Oh.
For real?"
She admitted,
"When I told [Steve] I was pregnant with Jack, he just started crying.
When I told him I was pregnant this time, it was [a] shock.
It's super, super exciting!
We feel incredibly lucky."
In September 2020, Starsiak Hawk announced the happy arrival of their beautiful daughter
Charlotte "Charlie" Hawk.
This HGTV host is fully aware that her take-charge personality could come across as overly controlling
- and she's totally cool with that.
As Mina told Fox Business,
"I'm a control freak and a huge planner."
"I'm not frustrated with Mina, I'm frustrated with the situation…Maybe a little frustrated with Mina.
That's possible."
While this can lead to inevitable tensions when working with her mom on renovations,
Laine says they've managed to come up with a system for dealing with those conflicts.
She explained,
"We used to - before the show - kind of take a little time out from each other, think about
what's going on, and then come back and have a little conversation."
But, as she added, that strategy was no longer feasible as production ramped up, forcing
the two to spend much of the day together.
She said,
"What we've learned to do is just work through it, whatever's going on, emotionally too, but keep working.
[…] What ends up happening is we basically forget about it."
In the summer of 2020, Starsiak Hawk expanded the Two Chicks and a Hammer empire.
As Architectural Digest reported, that was when she opened the Indianapolis retail outlet,
Two Chicks District Co., featuring an array of merch ranging from gifts to furniture.
The store also boasts a cafe where shoppers can grab a bite to eat, along with a glass
of wine if they like.
As Starsiak Hawk told the outlet, her vision for the store was a space that was chic and
welcoming with a comfy-cozy vibe.
She said,
"We wanted the store to feel like an extension of your home."
"Do what makes you comfortable.
Get a cookie.
Sit on a couch.
Y'know, hang out here and work."
One particularly unique feature of the space is that it also includes an adjacent rental
- dubbed The House That Two Chicks Built - which, at the time, could be booked for a stay via Airbnb.
Starsiak Hawk added,
"The entire vibe of the Airbnb is our comfy, approachable style.
Lots of pillows, comfy blankets, even a little pup corner with a dog bed and bowls."
Filming a TV series, managing a renovation company, and running a retail store aren't
the only projects to consume Starsiak Hawk's days.
In 2021, she announced she had written a children's book called "Built Together."
In the works for two years, she explained of the book's message,
"That there are ALL kinds of families made in ALL different ways - and they're all imperfectly perfect."
In an interview with Parade, Starsiak Hawk said she was inspired to write a kids' book
after the birth of her son, Jack.
She explained,
"You can build your family any way you want, like you build a house any way you want.
You just have to have the right foundation to start with.
[It's about] accepting and choosing your own kind of family, but also knowing that other
ones are going to be different."
After her second pregnancy, Starsiak Hawk opened up about getting a tummy tuck, breast
implants, and liposuction — commonly known as the "mommy makeover".
As she explained in an interview with People, she thought long and hard about her decision
to have the surgery.
"There's this whole idea of like embrace your stretch marks, embrace your scar, it's this,
like, proof of this strong thing you did."
But while it was the best choice for her, it still came with a certain amount of guilt.
She told the outlet,
"It's like this mom-guilt that everyone else needs to be taken care of except you."
But after delivering two babies via C-section, the changes in Starsiak Hawk's body left her
feeling uncomfortable in her own skin.
She added,
"If you don't feel good about yourself, it's going to affect your work life, your social life, your [love] life.
It just inhibits you."
Ultimately, Starsiak Hawk told Today that she felt that she had made the right decision, adding,
"I feel great.
I feel like myself again."
Starsiak Hawk and mom Laine are about as close as a mother and daughter can be.
They're even next-door neighbors.
But, as Laine revealed to IndyStar, their dynamic also has a competitive edge to it.
Starsiak Hawk hinted that their relationship had been fraught in the past, but that any
previous damage had apparently been repaired.
She said,
"I think we're just getting back to the point where we like each other again.
We live next door to each other.
We're mom and daughter and friends, as well."
Regardless of the previous events that may have taken place between them, Laine declared,
"She's not going to lose me.
I'm always going to love her and think she's awesome and have her back.
[…] It's not like two business partners who can just go their separate ways."
When Starsiak Hawk began renovating her first home with her mom, they were total newbies
when it came to home repair.
So, the duo launched into a crash course on how to actually do it.
As Laine said they didn't have much money to work with, but they did have the time to
do some research.
She shared with USA Today,
"We are self-taught.
We read books, we watch YouTube videos, and we read directions.
That's key - it's amazing what you can learn when you read the directions."
On the topic of the skills they mustered in order to complete their first reno, Starsiak
Hawk 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."
But there was one aspect of the process that didn't require either of them to learn any
special skills; demolition.
"Watch out for that ceiling!
It might fall on you."
Starsiak Hawk quipped,
"No one has to teach you how to break s---."
Production on "Good Bones" came to a grinding halt in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic.
When filming eventually resumed several months later, Starsiak Hawk encountered some differences
in how the show was produced.
One change was that there were now "COVID supervisors" on set, assigned to each member
of the cast to ensure that they followed the strict protocol for shooting.
Meanwhile, Starsiak Hawk had welcomed her daughter Charlotte.
And when filming ramped back up, the new mom brought her infant daughter to work.
As the cameras rolled, Starsiak Hawk enlisted her COVID supervisor to embrace a new facet
of his job: babysitter.
She told Today,
"A lot of times when I would come to set and bring [Charlotte]…he would just hold her.
It was so sweet, him just hanging out with this newborn baby."
Given that Starsiak Hawk is self-taught, she's all about empowering homeowners when it comes
to their own DIY repairs.
And she spoke with BuzzFeed, sharing her recommendations on what tools are required for a basic home toolkit.
A key lesson she wanted to convey was one that she had learned through trial and error.
She said,
"To save a few bucks we always chose the budget option, and quickly learned the number one
DIY lesson the hard way: Don't buy the cheapest tools!"
Instead, she suggests investing in quality tools when you need them.
If a more expensive tool saves time and results in a better outcome, it's worth the extra cash.
"Look at me solving problems all day long.
Should listen to your mama."
"Hashtag underrated."
As Mina puts it, "Tools are like kitchen knives.
Sure, you can cut bread with a steak knife, but it's a lot easier to cut it with a bread knife."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more List videos about your favorite HGTV stars are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.