‘Good Bones’ returns with new episodes
Under renovation: Mother-anddaughter home-rehab duo Mina Starsiak and Karen E. Laine return to make an old house like new again in another episode of “Good Bones,” airing Tuesday, May 8, on HGTV. The pair have been stripping down the abandoned houses of Indianapolis since 2008 with their rehab business, Two Chicks and a Hammer, Inc.
Laine, formerly a defense attorney, left her law practice to commit fully to rehabbing homes with daughter Starsiak, who brought her real estate expertise to the venture. The two initially focused their work on homes in their own neighborhood of Fountain Square, until they began branching out into similar small neighborhoods in the area. By 2014, their work improving 22 local homes had caught the eye of HGTV’s talent recruiters. They approached Laine and Starsiak about sharing their process with the network’s viewers, and “Good Bones” was born.
In the past, Laine has made it clear that what they do is not “flipping” houses, as they care for their neighborhood and its homes by getting down to the bones of every project to tackle anything that needs fixing. The series has become popular for the way it reveals how tough home rehab can get and how dirty the gutting can be.
Laine and Starsiak are both selftaught entrepreneurs in the maledominated business of home renovation, and the hands-on approach they take with their work is a showcase of their skills and a testament to their penny-pinching abilities. During the first season of “Good Bones,” the two made sure to include the parts of home renovation that are typically not detailed on television, such as emptying a freezer full of rotting meat, and, a duty common to many of their projects, cleaning human waste.
The mother-and-daughter team encountered its scariest project to date in season 3’s premiere, with a house full of junk and topped with rotting ceilings. Though Laine and Starsiak always do their best to find a way to make the most of even the worst property on the block, this home needed to be fully knocked down and rebuilt from the ground up. The rebuild opened up a perfect opportunity for Starsiak to complete the home with a client in mind who’d been looking for the mod- ern farmhouse design of their dreams, and of course, the pair delivered.
Season 3 features more than just stunning renovation reveals: Starsiak broke the news of her first pregnancy with her husband during filming. Catch a new episode of “Good Bones” on HGTV on Tuesday, May 8.
Cromartie comeback: Former NFL cornerback Antonio Cromartie, along with his wife, Terricka, and their six children, return for the second season premiere of USA’s “The Cromarties” on Tuesday, May 8. After retiring from football, Cromartie became a stay-athome father to his children and felt inspired to share his home life with fans and the audience of USA.
The transition from full-time NFL star directly into full-time fatherhood meant that Cromartie’s competitiveness bled into dad duties, making for perfect television moments, like when he challenged his wife to a pottytraining contest during the first season of the show.
Cromartie is well known for not only his sporting career as a threetime Pro Bowler but for his title of father to a whopping 14 children. Cromartie infamously had difficulty recalling the names of his then eight children in a 2010 interview for HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” and “The Cromarties” is in part a vehicle for him to share how he truly acts as a father.
With past television blunders behind him, Cromartie’s family seems to make all the difference for his new onscreen presence. Discussing the conception of the series, Terricka told CBSSports.com that approval from the kids was paramount, and that once they agreed to participate and production began, the film crew became part of their family.
Though Cromartie took the opportunity to share his personal life with an audience very seriously, the show takes a lighthearted look at family life with the Cromarties. The first season of the series featured a close look into the fun and love that the family shares together in their New Jersey home, including coordinating Halloween costumes, taking a camping trip, budgeting and chasing young twins J’Adore and Jynx away from trouble. The season also detailed Terricka’s pregnancy with their youngest daughter, Jhett, with the finale showing the family making the last-minute preparations for her arrival and meeting the newest addition for the first time.
So far, Cromartie’s other eight children haven’t been featured in any episodes, and though they live in other states across America, anything could happen when it comes to this family. Don’t miss the second season premiere of “The Cromarties” on USA on Tuesday, May 8.