Mina Starsiak Hawk says goodbye to ‘Good Bones’
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Mina Starsiak Hawk, the host of HGTV’s “Good Bones,” got married, had two children and renovated dozens of homes in her Fountain Square neighborhood during the eight seasons of the show.
These are milestones she shared with designers, camera operators and other crew members who she says became family over the years.
“We created this big, weird, dysfunctional family that just came to an end today,” Starsiak Hawk said in her Mina AF podcast episode announcing the end of “Good Bones.” The shows eighth season will still air, but the show will not film additional seasons.
Starsiak Hawk was waiting tables in Indianapolis in 2007.
At just 23 years old, it was the same year she turned her first renovation. She says it was a side hobby that did not make a living. She continued to wait tables throughout the filming of the pilot, in hopes that HGTV would pick it up.
“Then I came into this whirlwind life that’s been 13 or so houses a year for the last eight years of my life,” Starsiak Hawk said. “The business has changed so much. It went from me and my mom, to me and my mom and a handful of people, then her retiring and me buying her out.”
The first episode of “Good Bones” aired in March 2016. It quickly became a top show for HGTV and immediately gave Starsiak Hawk celebrity status.
Starsiak Hawk says the end of the series is an end of an era, but it was not a decision made for her.
“This is the right thing,” Starsiak Hawk said. “This is a good decision. This is something that was made together with the network, and, ya know, hopefully very exciting things to come. But, it’s been really hard to do what we’ve all done the last eight seasons.”
Now, she says, she’ll try to navigate her new normal.
“The end of anything is just hard,” Starsiak Hawk said. “I’ve done the hard things. Oh my God, letting go employees was so hard. These people have worked so hard for me and it’s just, it’s just one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My childbirth was not that hard. I had C-sections. This was harder than that.”
In the podcast episode, she tells the story of a friend who asked her what she wanted to do now that the show is ending. Starsiak Hawk said she didn’t know how to answer the question.
“I’m almost 40 and I’m trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up,” Starsiak Hawk said. “Because, I’ve not ever had to figure that out! I was waiting tables post-college, hustling houses on the side and then this amazing experience happened and now I get kind of dropped back into that mindset of, ‘what do I want to do?’”
Starsiak Hawk said she’ll likely continue doing what she loves, renovating houses. Now, though, she plans to do it at a “much more reasonable pace,” she said.
“It’s exciting, it’s scary, I’m still responsible for people’s employment but a much more reasonable amount of people,” Starsiak Hawk said. “A lot of ‘maybes.’ I’ve got some great show ideas I’ve pitched … had some conversations about. I’ve got the store still running that I can now put a little bit more time and energy into.”
She’s referencing the Two Chick District. Co at 1531 South East Street.
The store sells home décor and has a café. It’s not uncommon to see groups of friends chatting with champagne flutes through the windows.
The first episode of “Good Bones” season eight airs Aug. 15 on HGTV.