Mina Starsiak Hawk

Indy Like a Local

Who is Mina?

A Fountain Square resident and one-half of the mother-daughter duo who star on HGTV’s Good Bones, which just wrapped up its fifth season.

Q: Did you discover any new restaurants during the stay-at-home orders earlier this year?

It’s been really fun seeing how some of the restaurants have transitioned. So Bluebeard, which I love, pretty much every Thursday we get pizza from them. It’s the best pizza on the most amazing sourdough crust. I hope they continue that. Over in Bates-Hendricks, really close to us is 1718 Housebar. They opened toward the end of last year. They’ve opened back up their outdoors. It’s a fun, nice neighborhood place with yummy food. That’s been nice to have around. Other than that, it’s been a lot of Cluster Truck.

Q: Where do you like to take your son, Jack, for fun?

I know it’s probably not traditional, but it’s really nice to go walk over around the [Eli] Lilly campus during off hours. There’s rocks to climb on and flowers and plants. There were 15 bunnies last time we walked through there. Especially on weekends, he can run free and not worry about cars. It’s our urban version of hiking in a park somewhere.

I’ve been researching a lot about Forest School, which is this co-op idea with parents and caregivers getting together a couple times a week. It’s this child-led adventure throughout a park. You stop and have a snack, sing songs. That ideally will start back up again soon. There’s charters all across the country. It’s really good prep for kindergarten and first grade. They socialize with other kids and get independence.

Q: What are some lessons you’ve learned in doing Good Bones for five seasons now?

I think it’s applicable to me, to life, to really any career is figuring out healthy boundaries and balance. I think it’s an ongoing work in progress. It’s changed over the years. Steve and I regularly have conversations about the structure that works best for us. Instead of trying to come home by 4 and being half-present, what I’m proposing is, we don’t come home until we’re ready to be home. That’s likely going to be 5:30. But when I’m home, I won’t be on my computer, I won’t be on my phone. The same for him. When we’re home, we’re home. The same thing with the show. The network would love to get 30 episodes a year out of us. And that’s just not possible. Especially being pregnant [note: Mina gave birth to baby Charlotte in mid-September, 2020], I tell them, ‘Hey, I’m not feeling great today. I’m really tired, so if we can try to make the day as efficient as possible, that would be lovely.’ They’re like, ‘Yep, got it, we can do that.’

Q: Can you pick a favorite project or one that has special meaning to you?

There’s definitely a handful. Obviously, my own renovation. But my sister has actually bought two of our homes. In season one or two, she bought a tiny yellow house on Elm. She met her fiancé, they had dog babies and needed another home, so we renovated one on Hoyt she ended up buying. We just did MJ, our designer’s, house. The reveal today was for two of my good friends that are buying a house in Bates-Hendricks. Those personal ones that we have buyers who we know are always extra special.

Q: Any news you can share on season six?

We’re actively filming. We started just before the shutdown and picked back up. We’ll be filming season six probably into March. We’ve got a pretty good head start on it. A lot of it is in Old Southside.