‘Good Bones’ Star Mina Starsiak-Hawk Opens up About Mom Karen Laine’s Retirement (Exclusive)

In September, Good Bones star Karen Laine revealed plans to lay down the hammer off-screen and step back from Two Chicks & a Hammer, the company she and daughter, Mina Starsiak-Hawk, built a decade ago and that catapulted their HGTV series. Revealing the news in a blog entry shared to the Indianapolis-based company’s official website, Laine admitted at the time while it wasn’t easy to leave, she would not be far from the show, and now Starsiak-Hawk affirms exclusively to PopCulture.com that fans do not have to worry one bit about her mother’s retirement in light of the network’s tease.

“She’s definitely still on the show,” Starsiak-Hawk told PopCulture. “She’s a founder of the business, but no longer has ownership of it. She’s not having to deal with any of the day-to-day stuff, but she still gets to come in and do a lot of the fun things. The DIY projects, a lot of landscaping.”

In a sneak peek for Season 5, premiering Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on HGTV, Laine is featured in a number of clips, including one where she shares a big announcement with the team, alluding to her recent retirement announcement. Starsiak-Hawk goes on to share that with the show now adding a more personal touch to the renovations with their lives, it will be interesting for fans to see some of the more emotional aspects.

“[Mom’s] in most of the demos on Season 5 but going into Season 6… she’s in a few less of those. She looks incredible for her age, but she is absolutely of a certain age where that’s the thing, it’s hard on your body — [even] for me, and I’m 35. Some of the more physically demanding stuff, she’s in a little bit less. But yeah, she isn’t going anywhere,” the soon-to-be mother-of-two said.

In the letter shared Sept. 30 addressing her retirement from the Two Chicks & a Hammer company, Laine wrote: “Although it is hard to leave this wonderful group of people, it is exactly how wonderful and capable they are that makes me comfortable leaving. I have complete confidence that the company Mina and I founded, based on the novel idea of improving neighborhoods by rehabilitating the worst houses in a neighborhood, one house at a time, has a bright future! I won’t be far, and will likely just be puttering in the yard!”

With Season 5 premiering Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, the family-oriented Good Bones is diving headfirst in a different direction this year with both its style and sentiment as it spotlights a more personal side. In addition to Laine’s retirement announcement playing out, Starsiak-Hawk will also share her emotional IVF journey that results in a second pregnancy with her husband, Steve Hawk. The addition of such an aspect alongside chic and sophisticated renovations comes with her son Jack and husband Steve making more appearances on the series, which the Indiana University alum absolutely loves seeing. Starsiak-Hawk further shares how her husband understood the scope of shooting a series when they filmed at her dad’s house during the first season.

“That was the first time [Steve] said to me like, ‘Oh, okay, I really get what you do now. It’s intense, it’s weird, and it’s a lot of hard work.’ It’s nice having that understanding. More on Steve’s part — it’s just nice having him around. When he’s been good, we like each other. We’re lucky,” she laughed.

Good Bones Season 5 premieres at a special time Tuesday, June 9 at 8 p.m. ET on HGTV before the OWN Town Hall, airing across all of Discovery’s networks at 9 p.m. ET. Fans can tune into Good Bones every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET following this event. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for more reality TV coverage and follow us on Twitter @PopCulture.