Diksha Arya
When it comes to home renovation shows, Mina Starsiak Hawk is one of the few personalities who stand out. Her dynamic nature, creative vision, and remarkable talents helped her make a mark on the HGTV network with her show ‘Good Bones’. By transforming run-down houses into beautiful dream homes, Mina, along with her mother/co-host Karen Laine, captivated the audience with her innate charm and talent.
While her fans are familiar with her incredible work on TV, her entrepreneurial spirit, and her writing talents through her book ‘Built Together,’ there is a lot more to know about her personal life, including her loving husband and the beautiful family they have built together and we are happy to share what we know.
Mina Starsiak Hawk’s Background
Born on November 26, 1987, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Mina Starsiak is one of the most familiar faces for the HGTV audience. Her parents, Karen E. Laine and Casey Starsiak, got divorced when she was just a teenager. This shaped her personality as she often found herself in situations where she had to just rely on herself. In the ‘For The Love’ podcast, hosted by Jen Hatmaker, she mentioned how her independence initially made her relationships difficult, saying, “If everything falls apart, I can manage myself and a lot of times it’s helpful and sometimes it’s not so helpful because it turns into the stubbornness and the isolation. It hasn’t, you know, probably in the last chunk of my life, but when I was younger for sure.”
However, the silver lining of this was that Mina ended up with a big blended family with 5 brothers and 2 sisters. After graduating from Indiana University with a degree in Business and Sociology, she ended up working as a waitress. The humble beginning of her successful career was when she bought her first house and started to repair it, which led her to start her own company, Two Chicks and a Hammer, in collaboration with her mother.
After running the company for 7 years, the dynamic duo was approached to host their own home renovation show ‘Good Bones’. Building on their success, the two opened a store in 2020 called Two Chicks District Co., where they sell furniture and home decor. Mina’s popularity soared, leading her to be invited to several other shows, including ‘A Very Brady Renovation’, ‘Rock the Block’, ‘Battle on the Beach’, ‘Brother vs. Brother’, ‘Martha Knows Best’, and ‘Rachael Ray’. Apart from this, she is also a real estate agent who has a strong attachment to her home state, Indiana.
Mina Starsiak Hawk’s Blissful Married Life
The love story of Mina Starsiak and her husband of 7 years, Steve Hawk, began on social media in 2013 as they were connected through mutual friends on Facebook. Mina’s initial impression of Steve was extremely positive as she found him stunningly handsome. However, their first in-person meeting is another story, as it wasn’t the picture-perfect encounter one might have expected. They met at a baseball game, and Steve ignored her all night, leaving her feeling a bit disappointed, which only got worse when he let his friend hit on her. Despite this hiccup, Mina agreed to give Steve a second chance, which turned out to be a wise choice.
At this time, Steve was working as an Advertising Executive at CoStar Group, which he left in January 2023 to pursue his passion for fitness and start his own company, HawkFit, a personal training company. However, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the couple. During an interview with Country Living, Mina’s mother, Karen, spoke about the early stages of her daughter’s relationship with her now-son-in-law. Without elaborating on what went wrong, she said, “They broke up for a while because he behaved really badly—in a phenomenally bad way.”
After the couple got back together, Karen didn’t hesitate to speak her mind and told Steve, “Don’t ever hurt her again because you’ll have me.” The situation today has changed and the relationship between Karen and her son-in-law has grown better. “I don’t really think first impressions matter because I love him. I love him because we have been through some conflict and struggle together, and we have grown in that. We have both committed to working through that.” In March 2015, just before the pilot episode of ‘Good Bones’ was about to be filmed, Steve proposed to Mina.
Mina set up a scavenger hunt, which led Mina to the 50-yard line in the Colts’ training field in Indianapolis, where he asked for her hand in marriage—a heartfelt gesture that set the stage for their commitment to one another. About a year-long engagement, the couple exchanged vows on June 11, 2016, in a ceremony at her show’s hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana. The reception was organized at the historic 1899 building where the couple departed from tradition with a selection of 400 donuts instead of a wedding cake. They also took 11 dancing lessons to perfect their moves for a memorable first dance.
Mina Starsiak Hawk’s Kids
The couple’s journey into parenthood was filled with its own set of challenges. In August 2018, the couple welcomed their first child, Jack Richard Hawk. This was the beginning of a new chapter in their lives; however, the path to expanding their family wasn’t as straightforward as they hoped to be. In 2020, Mina and Steve talked about their struggles with infertility. Mina continued sharing her journey on social media, posting about the difficulties they were facing and the steps they took to overcome them.
Standing by his wife’s side, Steve made an appearance on several episodes of ‘Good Bones’ as they continued to navigate the emotional and difficult process of in vitro fertilization. The way they were open about their experience resonated with their fans and showcased their unwavering commitment to each other. Their hard work and perseverance paid off in September 2020 when they welcomed their second child, a daughter named Charlotte Drew Hawk. Following the birth, Mina posted an Instagram story revealing that the couple were done having kids and Steve was getting a vasectomy.
The couple also has a difficult history with alcohol and decided to give it up for the better of their family. In an episode of Mina’s podcast, ‘Mina AF’, Steven talked about her mother and how alcohol took years off their relationship. He described his mother as a “full-blown” alcoholic. Even for Mina, the problem has always existed, as she explained in the podcast, “So it’s not this ‘What the heck happened to my life?’ It’s just always been present and problematic, but not in the way where jobs are being lost, homes are being lost. It’s always been very functional.” In 2020, Steve lost his sister, Stefanie, to ethanol poisoning.
So, when Mina got pregnant with Charlotte, after seeing Steve enjoy Margaritas with their neighbors, she told him, “I don’t want to not say anything and regret not saying anything for two weeks, two years, two decades, and then us be in a place we can’t come back from since it’s so far gone.” For Steven, the turning point was when he realized that he didn’t want alcohol to be the reason he didn’t have a relationship with his children. He said, “I’m never going to allow my children to have a negative relationship with me on things that I can control, and I can control my alcohol intake.”
The story of Mina Starsiak Hawk isn’t confined to the realm of home renovation; it’s the tale of love, family, and perseverance. From being online friends to marriage and the challenges they have overcome, Mina and Steve’s journey is a testament to the power of love. As Mina continues to captivate her audience with her work on ‘Good Bones’, her story serves as an inspiration to fans all over the world—a story of two people finding each other amidst the twists and turns of life and creating a beautiful life filled with love. As for the future, we expect nothing but the best from the two and wish them all the luck!
Read More: Where is HGTV’s Good Bones: Risky Business Filmed?
