‘Good Bones’: How the Mother-Daughter Duo ‘Accidentally’ Got Started on HGTV
Karen E. Laine and her daughter Mina Starsiak are the faces of the HGTV series Good Bones. Find out how the mother-daughter duo got their start flipping houses and “accidentally” landed themselves a show with the home and garden focused network.
‘Good Bones’ is a house-flipping show on HGTV
In 2016, HGTV premiered Good Bones, a reality show where Laine and Starsiak revitalize their hometown of Indianapolis one property at a time. Their show demonstrates the ups and downs of refurbishing old homes.
Like any good renovation series, the mother-daughter duo work together to assess costs, personal sacrifice, physical labor, and of course, budget. In this way, Good Bones gives fans a realistic picture of what it’s like to flip homes.
Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak weren’t always home-flippers
Laine and Starsiak might be expert home-flippers now, but before they got started in the world of renovation, they both had entirely different careers. Before 2007 when the mother-daughter team founded Two Chicks and a Hammer, Laine was working as a defense attorney and Starsiak was a part-time waitress.
After graduating from college, Starsiak said buying a house was the first thing on her “grown-up” to do list. Checking off that to-do was what sparked the idea for Two Chicks and a Hammer.
“Lots of my friends were getting big-kid jobs, and my grown-up thing was buying a house,” she told Indianapolis Monthly. “Mom co-signed with me, and we bought a house and renovated the whole thing. It was a huge project. We tore it down to the studs, did the flooring, tile, cabinets. Literally watched YouTube videos. The practice house was my house, and we had a lot of fun, with minimal injuries.”
Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak landed a gig on HGTV ‘by accident’
When asked about how the Good Bones came to be, Starsiak called it an “accident.”
“A talent scout ran across us,” Laine explained further to the local outlet. “Mina thought someone was trying to scam us. We did a Skype interview, had to get background checks, and went through social-media checks. We filmed a couple of weeks with a Flip-cam. They have a first-look agreement, and HGTV said to make a pilot.”
And the rest is history! In addition to flipping the houses, Starsiak is also a licensed realtor for Carpenter Realtors in Indianapolis.
Karen E. Laine retired from house-flipping but remains part of ‘Good Bones’
In September 2019, another local publication revealed Laine was retiring to spend more time with her husband and focus on projects involving her previous career in law. According to the outlet, Laine still plans to revitalize homes and be part of Good Bones, just less frequently.
“With Two Chicks and a Hammer staff being so close-knit, she will not be gone for good,” a statement from Two Chicks and a Hammer read. “Karen is the direct mother or a mother figure to many of the staff of Two Chicks and a Hammer. She will still contribute to HGTV’s Good Bones as a co-star to her daughter and co-founder of Two Chicks and a Hammer.”
There are currently five seasons of Good Bones. In August 2020, Deadline confirmed a sixth season of the HGTV series. The network ordered 14 one-hour episodes of the home makeover show. Good Bones Season 6 will premiere in summer 2021.
