'Good Bones' Season 5 Episode 13: Mina-Karen transform old, abandoned cottage into minimalistic modern home
In the latest episode of 'Good Bones', Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen Laine return to the Old Southside neighborhood, where they renovate an old crusty cottage in the Talbott area that has been sitting empty for years. But it is not all sunshine and rainbows. The team faces a big hitch in their plans as the house unexpectedly collapses to the ground after the demo, and they have a lot of rethinking to do before they can proceed with their plans and not overspend their budget.
The Talbott cottage is the fourth house that they have tackled in Old Southside, which, according to Mina, is probably the most transitional of the areas that the team is working in. They have previously worked on and sold three other houses in the neighborhood. The long-abandoned cottage currently has a single floor with a two-bedroom one-bath basic layout. They intend on turning it into a two-story, three-bedroom, and two-bathroom home with a brighter exterior and fun accents.
Although the more cost-effective way to go about the renovations for the house would've been to tear it down and rebuild it from scratch, the property has an existing charm and character to it that Mina hopes they can salvage. Ideally, they have to take the back of the house off, since some of the foundation needs redoing. They are going to include the second story addition in the back while fixing the existing foundation in the frontal part of the house. Lastly, they will open up the first floor by getting rid of the walls to create an open floor plan for the kitchen, living room, and dining room.
Mina hopes that the house will bring them profit once they have finished with the renovations because the neighborhood is booming and prices of homes have gone up since they last sold a home in the area. She purchased the 900 square foot Talbott cottage for $20,000 and allocates a budget of $180,000 in renovation costs bringing the total investment to $200,000. Mina is confident that they will be able to sell the remodeled home for $250,000 earning them at least $50,000 in profits.
The team gets to demolition and rids the cottage of all the unnecessary components from inside and outside. But the very next day, Mina is hit with bad news. The Talbott cottage had fallen apart overnight. Now, all that's left is rubble and Mina has to rethink the entire floor plan to makes some significant additions. Despite the disaster, Karen is hoping that the "death to a caterpillar" would mean a "birth to a butterfly," and the cottage coming under is just a challenge that they have to get through.
With an entirely new floorplan and having to change the whole footprint, the team had to shrink the home by a bunch to stick to the budget. The big change is that with the smaller area, they have space for only one bedroom and bathroom on the first floor. But because they are pouring a new foundation, the house will be more robust to support a full second-story which will take up the additional bedroom space. Despite the initial setback, the team gets to work on the foundation and on building a new stong skeleton for the cottage
Mina's brother Tad proposes that they move the furnace and water heater room downstairs to add another full bath to the second floor and raise the value of the property. This would essentially mean that spending an extra $2,500 could add another $5,000 worth to the property. The exterior gets new siding, while the drywalls go up primed for their coat of paint. Mina and Karen go over the major change in the overall style of design and decide on giving it a minimalistic modern farmhouse kind of vibe.
Two weeks after she took a pregnancy test that came positive, Mina attended an ultrasound appointment with her husband to confirm her pregnancy. The doctor revealed that she was indeed pregnant and six weeks along. She and Tad also have a sweet moment when she surprises him with her pregnancy announcement, and her brother gets emotional at hearing the happy news.
For the house, the team opts for a more textured and warm-colored flooring, while the kitchen gets white cabinets, white subway tile backsplash, and a quartz counter-top that looks like marble. Karen's DIY project is a set of shelves made from decorative corbels that she salvaged from the house before it collapsed. At the house, the team works on landscaping and adds some plants to give it more curb appeal.
A subcontractor for Two Chicks and a Hammer Inc, Jared, along with his girlfriend Jordan, has already put in an offer for the home. Even though they weren't able to stick to the original footprint of the house, Mina thinks that it turned out beautifully and fits into the neighborhood perfectly.
'Good Bones' airs Tuesdays at 9 pm ET/PT on HGTV.