Good Bones Star Mina Starsiak Hawk Opens up About Her Fertility Journey and the Big Changes Coming in Season 5

Demo dynamos Karen E Laine and Mina Starsiak Hawk are back for lots of gutting, plastering, painting and, more importantly, revitalizing iconic Indianapolis neighborhoods in the fifth season of Good Bones, which premieres Tuesday, June 9.

On the hit HGTV series, the mother-and-daughter duo buys the most ramshackle fixer uppers in their hometown. Next, they roll up their sleeves and do some serious rehab. And voila! What seemed like a design dud has been overhauled into a design marvel.

Mina first discovered her talent for renovation when she was a student studying at Indiana University. She was working for a landlord in Bloomington and renting one of several hundred properties he owned.

One day, she asked her landlord-boss if she could tear down a wall in her unit. “I don’t know why, but he said ‘sure’,” Mina recalls.

Not only did Mina and Karen demolish the wall to expose a beautiful staircase railing, they custom-built a bed in Mina’a room, which couldn’t be removed unless it was disassembled. “We were working with a very small space so we built a thick platform bed where we could put dressers and drawers underneath,” says Mina. “That was my first foray into renovations.”

In 2007, when Mina graduated from Indiana University-Bloomington, she bought a house at 23rd Street and Carrollton Avenue for $37,000. She and her mother meticulously renovated the home—and realized they had a knack for rehabbing homes.

Under the name Two Chicks and a Hammer, the duo rehabbed two houses per year while keeping their day jobs—Mina as a real estate agent and Karen as a lawyer.

That was until HGTV came calling in 2013. Now, they’re both full-time renovators who rehab 10 or more homes per year. Last season, Good Bones drew 17.4 million viewers. And for season 5, Karen and Mina are taking viewers behind the scenes in their business and family lives.

One of the biggest changes viewers will get to see is Mina’s fertility challenge as she and husband, Steve, try to conceive their second child. The couple’s first son, Jack, will turn 2 in August.

Parade.com chatted with Mina, who is six months pregnant, in late May: “I’m out of the miserable first trimester, but it’s is hot and humid. So [being pregnant] makes the humid Indiana summers a little bit less pleasant.”

Read on for more on her fertility journey, home renovation business and her impressive party skills.

You became pregnant via a round of intrauterine insemination, following a failed round of IVF. What has touched you most about sharing your infertility challenges? 

It has been really cool how many people have reached out and said that my sharing has helped them. If this is something easy for me to do and is helpful to many people, I’m glad that I can share. For a lot of people, it’s not easy to share that stuff, especially the emotional rollercoaster of it.

Where can people see more about your fertility journey?

I don’t really have boundaries [in sharing my story] as you can see in my digital series on HGTV.com and HGTV’s Facebook and IGTV.

Aside from finally getting pregnant, what has been one of the biggest surprises along your fertility journey?

I think of how in-depth the process is and how cost prohibitive it can be. My husband has incredible health insurance. But there was a little mix up in our insurance communication. We thought for a minute that the bulk wasn’t going to be covered. You need to have the finances be a part of this conversation about trying to have a life. That’s the reality, but it kind of sucks. For a lot of people it probably makes them make a different decision than we were able to make. We found out that there was a secondary coverage which took care of a large chunk of it. So finances didn’t have to be the deciding factor for us.

How do you think becoming a mother has changed you?

Most of my employees would agree that having Jack has made me a little bit nicer. Possibly because I’m more tired. It puts so much stuff in perspective. I think, Jack’s healthy, we’re all alive, great. We can solve that other problem.

I adore my husband and we like spending time together. But I’m a workaholic. I would work late. Or I’d be home, having dinner and working on my laptop. It kind of started when we had foster custody of my niece, Julie. We had to make different decisions and prioritize different things. Being home at a certain time and available is more important than needing to get another hour of work done.

What do you manage your work-life balance?

It’s been weird during the quarantine because all bets are off. But before that, Steve and I had a conversation that I would be home by 5:30 every day, which is a little bit later than he would like. Then, when I’m home, I’m home. So having Jack has helped me contain those other parts of my life. I actually turn off my work brain while I’m home, which is not something I’m naturally inclined to do.

You and your mother are so optimistic about the homes you tackle. How does that optimism spread into your personal lives?

Mom and I are very similar in this respect. It really doesn’t even cross our mind that we might completely screw up and not be OK. We just do things. And then if a problem arises we say, ‘Oh, crap. OK, we’ll figure that out’ I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely not courage nor optimism. We were both brought up to assume failure was not an option.

What factors help you decide to take on the project?

It’s really price and location. A lot of people maybe don’t buy that we actually purchase things sight unseen, but a lot of times we do. If a listing comes across my desk, like an email from a wholesaler, I’ll look at the square footage and location. I think, it’s a 1,200 square foot house. I can make that a two-bedroom, two-bath. I run the numbers and see if we can make at least a little bit of a profit on it. If we can, we put in an offer. With the right price and right location we can fix anything.

How is the show changing now that your mother is retiring from your main business operations?

She is definitely still going to be around. There’s no way to not have her around. She has so many ideas. And unfortunately, I get put the position to say “no” to a lot of them. The biggest thing she does for me, even though it looks annoying sometimes, is to have ideas that force me to get outside the box. When I’m constantly thinking about budgets and appealing to the masses to sell a home, she pushes and pushes enough that we still stay creative.

Most people have basic tools, like a hammer, nail, screwdrivers. But if you are upgrading to a power tool, what would you recommend?

A good impact drill with a good bit set will go a long way. A lot of people will get a general tool kit that has a standard drill in it. That is fine for a lot of things. But if you’re going to spend the money on a drill, spend a little bit more get an impact drill. The main difference is that it internally hammers as it drills. So it’s a stronger drill. You’re going to be able to do more things.

As if your design and renovation skills aren’t enough, we hear that you can saber a champagne bottle. Is that true?

I can. I love doing it. Once you know how to do it, it’s very easy. I’ve had friends come over and I’ll give them a 30-second tutorial. Anyone can do it. But it looks terribly impressive. I do it quite often when there’s an excuse for celebratory champagne. If we’re just having some bubbly rosé on a Sunday afternoon, I won’t get out the saber. But if there’s a reason to celebrate, I will do it.

Good Bones season 5 premieres Tuesday, June 9, at 8 p.m. ET. (The premiere has been moved up 1 hour due to the OWN Town Hall that will be broadcasting across Discovery networks.) .

Image Source:*parade.com

Source:parade.com