'Good Bones' Season 5 Episode 8: Mina and Karen revamp caved-in fairy cottage into charming new home
In the latest episode of 'Good Bones', Mina Starsiak Hawke and Karen Laine venture into a new neighborhood, where Mina's new project is a home acquired from a real-estate friend. But the team faces several challenges whilst renovating the property and the profit margin they set for themselves seems unattainable.
The Greenfield cottage is located in Irvington, a cool little neighborhood that is about 20 minutes east to downtown Indianapolis. Mina spent about $1,000 on its purchase, as the lady selling it to her did so for free, trusting that the Two Chicks and a Hammer Inc would be able to retain the charm of the fairy cottage with their renovations. The two-bedroom-one-bath home is only under 800 square feet and Mina intends to keep the blueprint as is.
The exterior of the cottage will need new siding and paint, a new roof, an open floor plan and a vaulted ceiling to give the interiors a feel of a bigger room. Mina allocated a $59,000 budget for renovations bringing the total investment on the home to $60,000. She hoped to list and sell it for $110,000 and make a potential profit of $50,000. The team has to be extremely careful with the budget because they don't want to out-build the houses in the neighborhood, but at the same time, they want to make the home a showstopping stand out.
While demolition is underway, they're aiming to salvage whatever they can from the left portion of the house that is still standing strong and since it will need minor improvements. But they plan on demo-ing the right side of the house to level it with its counterpart, without completely bringing the left side down. They decided on cutting the roof rafters in such a way that the left side would stay intact with all the bracing and the right side would collapse. Unfortunately, while they were waiting for permits and sorting out the technical aspects, the home caved in entirely save for the foundation which had to be rebuilt either way. The set budget would not be sufficient to reconstruct the home.
The site of the home was cleared off all the scraps and debris and the foundation has been rebuilt. Mina is aiming to give the house a minimalistic Scandinavian vibe, while Karen's DIY projects in one of the bedrooms is a hanging tree-bed, paying homage to the neighborhood's oldest tree, a Kyle Oak. The ceilings get eye-catching exposed beams that make the room feel and look bigger, while a small front-porch is installed at the front of the home for some extra curb appeal.
Mina and Karen decided on all-white interiors to invoke the Scandinavian feel, complete with white tiles and a Carrera marble backsplash. The minimalistic and tiny kitchen got butcher-block countertops to save money and add some warmth. Since they had to blow off a lot of their budget on reconstructing the full infrastructure of the cottage, they hoped to use some of the materials left behind from other projects. They installed dark-toned EVP flooring in a diagonal pattern to give the area a more upscale look and planned a porcelain graphic tiled walkway out front to add some color and to the otherwise simple exterior.
To complement the white-washed interiors, the team brought in pieces with a lot of beige, ivory and light wood tones. House plants around the space add a pop of color. With the impromptu reconstruction plans, the renovation costs bumped up to approximately $104,000, bringing the total investment to $105,000. Mina decided to list it at $115,000 for a potential profit of $10,000.
In addition, Mina also provided an update on her IVF journey. After spending weeks on medication and extracting eggs for the process, she was told that one of the eggs had managed to fertilize but it was still kept under observation to see if it would stay that way for long. Mina said that the eggs hadn't fertilized and she was scheduled to visit the doctor to discuss their next option.
'Good Bones' premieres every Tuesdays at 9 pm ET/PT on HGTV.