‘Good Bones’: Who Is Mina Starsiak Hawk and What Did She Do Before Becoming an HGTV Star?
Fans know HGTV host Mina Starsiak Hawk from her show Good Bones. But what did she do before finding fame as a renovation expert?
Read on to discover what path she was on before HGTV and what eventually redirected her. Plus, learn more about her latest project, a spinoff of Good Bones that explores an extensive renovation at a deeper level.
Mina Starsiak Hawk was a waitress before ‘Good Bones’
Mina was a waitress before she realized she had a good eye for renovation. She eventually got a real estate license and bought her first house with the help of her mother, lawyer Karen E. Laine.
“Lots of my friends were getting big-kid jobs, and my grown-up thing was buying a house,” Mina told Indianapolis Monthly.
They renovated that home and, in the process, found they had a passion. Eventually, Karen and Mina started a rehab business called Two Chicks and a Hammer and would work on two to three houses a year while continuing their day jobs.
“With Karen retiring from the business in 2019, Mina now works on renovating homes full time and is able to complete around 14 houses a year,” according to their website.
How Mina Starsiak Hawk got an HGTV show
According to Mina, ending up on HGTV happened by accident. She said her mom co-signed for her, they bought a house, and they “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,” Mina explained to Indianapolis Monthly. “The practice house was my house, and we had a lot of fun, with minimal injuries.”
Karen explained that when a talent scout approached them, they thought it was a prank. Once that feeling wore off, she said, “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,” Karen added. “We made it last fall, and they accepted it.”
Mina Starsiak Hawk‘s ‘Good Bones’ spinoff
The Good Bones spinoff, Risky Business, will focus on one project for the duration of six episodes instead of featuring a different home in each episode.
Mina will lead the show without Karen and work on a run-down mansion she purchased. She said a deeper look at the work that goes into restoring it would bring something new to HGTV’s table. “It’s going to be something that’s unique about Good Bones: Risky Business,” she offered.
She added, “People in the industry can watch and really see, ‘Oh OK, no, I get that; that makes sense,’ because there’s so much more in-depth information” (HGTV).
But that doesn’t mean that everyday viewers of Good Bones won’t be interested in the Risky Business spinoff. Mina thinks the new show will help “broaden the audience pool a little bit.”
