At a Glance
- Mina Starsiak Hawk says she misses “everything other than the interpersonal issues” from her hit show Good Bones
- Tight construction margins and family tensions marked the final 2023 season
- She now appears on Rock the Block season 7, premiering early 2026
- Why it matters: Fans get a candid look at the real costs-financial and emotional-behind reality-TV renovations
Two years after Good Bones wrapped its eight-season run, Mina Starsiak Hawk is opening up about what she longs for-and what she gladly left behind.
“I miss everything other than the interpersonal issues,” the Indianapolis-based renovator tells News Of Losangeles. “I loved making the show.”
The HGTV star, who started Two Chicks and a Hammer with her mother Karen E. Laine in 2007, says the family friction that played out on camera during the 2023 finale was only part of the stress. “The financial side of it” weighed just as heavily.
“Margins were so tight”
Starsiak Hawk explains that the real-estate landscape shifted dramatically from the time she began filming. “When I started, the real estate market was a different world, construction costs were different,” she says. “Towards the last couple seasons, it was just the margins were so tight. There just wasn’t really money to be made and that was stressful.”
- Construction costs rose faster than home prices in Indianapolis
- Profit on each flip shrank season by season
- She funded renovations out of her own pocket
Despite the money pressure, she still calls the experience “so fun.”
From family business to family fallout
Tension escalated during filming of the final season. In August 2023, Starsiak Hawk told listeners of her podcast Mina AF that she wasn’t “in a great place” with Laine or her brother Tad. The rift became a central storyline as the network cameras rolled.
After the original series ended, HGTV aired a three-episode spin-off in August 2024. The limited run followed mother and daughter working on separate projects in different states, emphasizing “new beginnings” for both.
Healing takes time, she notes: “It took us a lot of time to get there, so I think it takes a lot of time to kind of get out of it as well.”
The holidays brought the family back together. “We’re all amicable,” she says. “We’re not like best friends that braid each other’s hair on Saturday nights or anything, but no, it’s good.”
Life after Good Bones
Starsiak Hawk and husband Steve Hawk, parents to 7-year-old Jack and 5-year-old Charlie, recently reflected on the non-stop pace that followed the finale. “For the last two years, since I stopped filming Good Bones, I’ve been saying, ‘Once it slows down, I’ll figure out my new normal.’ And it hasn’t. And I think it might this year, but I don’t know.”
Her next television appearance strips away the financial risk she once carried. On Rock the Block season 7-set to premiere in early 2026-she competes without spending her own cash. “It’s not my money and it’s not my house. So it’s just the fun parts,” she says.
Key Takeaways
- Mina Starsiak Hawk loved the creative side of Good Bones but not the family conflicts
- Rising construction costs eroded profits, making the final seasons financially stressful
- She and her mother continue to repair their relationship after on-air tensions
- Her new HGTV role on Rock the Block lets her focus on design without personal financial exposure
