Mina Hawk Reflects on Season 7 of Good Bones – Indianapolis Monthly

good bones wrapped last week after a 20-week run, the longest of the hit show’s seven seasons. Mina Hawk directed Two Chicks and a Hammer on 13 home renovationsa landscaping specialand a six-week dream project called Risky business whose success could provide a new model for HGTV broadcasts. We caught up with Mina to discuss the season and what’s to come.

Phew, it was a long season! How are you?

It was a long year and a half. We don’t stop filming unless I say, “I’m going to leave, figure it out.” If it had taken longer, I might have become completely, hopelessly mentally unbalanced.

You talk about Risky business specifically, who focused on your biggest project, a mansion-turned-rental called Charlotte Hall.

Yeah. Risky business was amazing to do and the response was amazing. The reason it made great television is that it didn’t take four months like it was supposed to – it took 14. Everything that could go wrong went wrong, including a pandemic world and terrible subcontractors. It was a big risk for us and the network. We don’t edit things. It was much more raw.

Risky business highlighted a lot of things you don’t see in good bones under spending six episodes on one project. We’ve seen a lot more construction headaches.

good bones takes six to eight months of work on a house and whittles it down to 42 minutes for an episode. We’ve had these issues in other projects, but we just don’t have time to talk about them. With Risky business, we had more time to dive into it. HGTV was nervous about people’s reaction, but it was amazing.

How amazing?

On Discovery Plus, it scored a 0.81 in our female age bracket. good bones rates goodand he gets a .51. Risky business got astronomical comments and ratings from the people.

It seems the risk of doing something different paid off.

This challenged the idea that home shows cannot do a story arc. On HGTV, you have a nice reveal, put a nice little arc on it, and it’s that one-episode arc. Risky business showed that people will follow if they don’t get this arc at the end of every episode. People have stomachs for certain dramas. People want to know the problem and the solution. It worked. To be honest, I couldn’t watch HGTV the old fashioned way. It wasn’t real with actors or hosts. I hope that the really positive feedback will allow us to stay a little more in this direction.

Let’s talk about Thomas, the mansplaining project manager who left the yard.

I couldn’t have written a better villain. After the episode aired where he was awful to me, he texted me and said, “Hey, some friends said they saw me on the show. I hope everything went well. If you ever need anything, let me know.

Is there as much mansplaining on every construction site?

No. Honestly, I don’t know if that was the nature of the male-owned business, whether it was standard operating procedure. What was shown was a snippet of how terrible it was.

In his defense, there were a lot of misunderstandings at the company he worked for, your contractor.

One hundred percent. He wasn’t the first project manager, and he wasn’t the last project manager. Many internal things were not going well, which is why the business relationship did not last. What I admire about him is that he doesn’t give a fuck. It must be a liberating feeling.

You had a good attitude about it.

He is used to managing commercial projects. It was like speaking Greek and Spanish to each other. He couldn’t understand that maybe I had the right language. The only reason I was able to handle it with any grace is that I had done business consulting and was working on that skill set. Like, “What you said is more of a reflection of you than me, so we’ll go through that.”

“Risked” refers to the million dollars you invested in this project before it started generating revenue. You tried to sell a rental property to raise the necessary funds. It was hard to understand how a house doesn’t sell in this market.

I was literally talking to [chief of staff] Finley on this this morning. Our old office is a profitable Airbnb with two units. He makes money every year and practically runs on his own. I listed it and it didn’t move. Meanwhile, Finley’s house is a single-family home a block away, and an investor bought it for $100,000 less than ours and is working on making it an Airbnb. I just don’t understand. Why would you buy a one income property when you can buy a two income property without work? I do not know.

It’s a big mystery, I guess.

A thousand percent agree. It’s like it’s screwed up.

What are your main design elements of the season?

The final turned out so beautiful. I loved the backsplash built into the counter. If we can afford to do it, I want to do it every time. And the bundles turned out really great for the headache they were.

What’s coming, design side?

The plans we’re working on right now, we have a lot of really cool floor installations, like basket weave patterns and herringbone. I grew up with hardwood floors, and people hated them for a while. Now they are coming back. I love it, because I’m like a grandmother at heart. Patterns, bold wallpapers, bold finishes. I love that everything is back now.

Iron Timbers made arched bookcases for the home in Episode 3, on Hoyt. Did they stay with the house?

They are in our store, Two Chicks District Co. We use them as displays.

Does part of the decor stay in the house?

Usually if we do a custom piece it will stick. But buyers can buy anything in the house at a pretty big discount. Many of them do it because they are first time home buyers. The Property Brothers have a great relationship with Wayfair and everything is good with the house. We cannot afford to do this. But we always do a walkthrough with the buyer after the reveal and tag everything they’re interested in and get them the prices. The buyer of one of twin houses bought everything for about $6,000.

It’s actually a lot. We also saw you build a new office this season. It’s quite easy to find. Are the fans passing?

Yes. My and Finley’s offices face the front. Once she saw a cute family taking pictures outside and told me. I opened the window and it was a mom, a dad and a girl. They were so excited, and I went to chat with them and took a picture. She put it on Instagram and asked for approval because I looked so crazy – two different colored socks, a huge sweatshirt falling off one shoulder, my hair is like… I just had looks ridiculous. And I’m like, whatever, that’s how I left the house and it’s fine. But we succeed because we have great fans. If I can try to say hello, I really like.

Where is the next season?

We have half finished filming.

Are there any other special projects on the horizon like Charlotte Hall?

I bought a property in Fountain Square, it’s three lots with two houses and these crazy garages on it, in Fountain Square. I’m obsessed with it, but I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. Part of me wants this to be my forever home. But I’m kind of letting it rest for a bit. I usually dive into it, and now I try to be more thoughtful on the front end than I was on Charlotte Hall.

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