‘Good Bones’ Stars Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen E. Laine Tease ‘Different’ Direction for ‘Rollercoaster’ Season 7 (Exclusive)

HGTV’s Good Bones is back for Season 7 Tuesday night and the show’s beloved mother-daughter duo of Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak Hawk are ready for another 14 episodes of some stellar home renovations! With the new season focusing on more ways to expand the Two Chicks & a Hammer home renovation business, Hawk tells PopCulture.com exclusively that a lot of “different” things are taking place this time around, especially as her company continues to expand its style in their hometown of Indianapolis. 

“I mean, the whole Two Chicks team, it’s different. It looks different, there’s different people, there’s different roles. I went to school for general studies and got a business minor and I don’t like managing people — I’m not good at managing people. I’m a control freak. I want to do everything myself and that’s unfortunately not possible,” Hawk told PopCulture. “I started, actually, before season seven even aired, a six-month consulting process with a business development coach, and the timing was just amazing because I had a few weeks with her already when things started getting really difficult in the season. There was a lot of change in the company and it’s kind of like therapy meshed with business consulting. It’s been really amazing.”

(Photo: HGTV / Discovery)

Hawk adds how such a process “helped” the show to progress in its style and renovations for the new season, especially during the pandemic. “[The] changes in who was working at the company and building our office and making all these big changes that also came along with really big financial commitments, made me feel better about doing them,” she said. “Feel more confidence in myself, in the decisions I was making, and in the direction I was taking the company and all that stuff. So it’s been very much a rollercoaster.” 

The entrepreneur and mom of two says audiences will also see “way more of the rollercoaster” that Season 7 is on her spinoff series premiering later this September, adding how all of it is coming to a “really good place with how the company’s looking and what we’re able to take on and manage.”

With Hawk and her mother Laine continuing to buy more dilapidated properties in their hometown of Indianapolis, demo them down to the studs, and renovate them into dazzling family homes, the two are also branching out into new neighborhoods for massive projects, including tackling their first commercial renovation for a bridal shop. But as the pair return to the popular Fountain Square neighborhood in the season premiere to transform a quaint, yet expensive, cottage-like home, they will need to add plenty of modern amenities and updates without losing the vintage charm in order to make a profit — a creative challenge the two are always up for.

“In all the houses we do, unless they get demolished completely, you’re working within a prescribed footprint,” Laine told PopCulture.com. “For me, having rules, like this foundation is the rule, helps channel the creativity. Because otherwise there are just too many options and the bridal studio, it’s the same thing. There’s this space and we’re working within this space and how do we channel this person’s vision so you can see it in the space. How do you do that?”

While Laine is retired from the business, she is still very active in the series, getting her creative juices flowing in a number of ways through the renovations and design. “Being retired, I have a lot more time,” she laughed. “I have a very interesting newsfeed, it’s very curated for me, there’s a lot of archeology and it’s an interesting newsfeed. But I read a lot of design blogs; I have a lot of feelings when I read other designers’ opinions, but all that stuff goes in this little weird mental Rolodex that it’s not organized. It is not. But we had a moment in the commercial space the other day where — I don’t know where these ideas come from — but it’s from that time spent thinking, where, you have a problem, we’re looking for a solution, and somewhere in the brain is the answer and here it is. I don’t know where it came from, but here, it’s for you — it’s the answer. This is the solution and so, it makes retirement feel less selfish.”

Good Bones airs every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on HGTV and is streaming on Discovery+. For more with Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen E. Laine, stick to PopCulture.com for the latest in all things reality TV and home renovations.