Good Bones Recap: Risky Business, Episode 6
Good Bones: Risky Business “Race to the Perfect Wedding” Sanders Street house finished exteriorPhoto by The Home Aesthetic, courtesy Two Chicks and a Hammer
Happy spinoff finale, everyone! Good Bones: Risky Business tosses the bouquet on the season with a race to the altar. Contributing editor Megan Fernandez and art director Kristin Sims are already married, so the bouquet is all yours.
Four weeks until Charlotte Hall will host its first wedding, Mina Hawk still has to fix the kitchen’s leaky ceiling, finish the exterior, and (shhh!) build a speakeasy in the house’s basement, which is where the episode starts.
Megan: What do you think the password for the speakeasy is? Barn doors? Rochambeau?
Kristin: Flaminga-go-go?
Megan: With a dance move! Mina has envisioned a spiral staircase down to the basement, but they are so impractical. Try moving furniture up and down them. My neighbor had one when I was a kid—with shag carpet—and the bars were a blast to swing from, but that’s about all a spiral staircase is good for except in a space so tiny that nothing else will fit.
Kristin: I agree. Especially if they use the speakeasy as an entertaining space since it has handy access to the kitchen.
Megan: Mina and MJ go furniture shopping for the speakeasy in a very cool furniture warehouse. I don’t recognize it.
Kristin: Blue Ocean Traders in Louisville. Remember when they visited there a season or two ago?
Megan: Oh, right, for the cash wrap at the store, Two Chicks District Co. Funny, that episode re-ran an hour later last night, with behind-the-scenes comments from Mina and Karen.
Kristin: Unfortunately, Blue Ocean is only open to the trade, not the public. It looks like some cool stuff. However, we’d probably need to write about 10 more blogs to be able to afford anything.
Megan: Mina said everything there is handcrafted.
Kristin: Imported, maybe.
Megan: Well, someone handcrafted or imported several curved, velvet banquettes, so Mina and MJ scored a huge L-shaped Art Deco pink beauty that’s perfect for the space. Back in Indy, it’s now two weeks out, and finishing the exterior is behind schedule. They have to build frames for the steps and patio, pour the concrete, let it cure in cold weather, then install the turf. They just don’t have time for all of it before wedding day, and that’s without any other delays or weather interruptions. How would you feel if your wedding was supposed to happen there in two weeks?
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Kristin: The bride me would have been a nervous wreck, of course. But the older me would have just found a backup plan. It’s a small wedding, and they could have easily held it somewhere else. Just move the caterer and tent somewhere else. I think this was all pushed for TV.
Megan: I think that’s a good guess. Mina once told me that construction and TV production are not easy bedfellows—construction is unpredictable, and filming needs to be very predictable. So for a narrative to come down to the wire like this and (spoiler) still work out just seems like too much of a coincidence. Speaking of, Mina was supposed to give wedding planner Bridget a week to decorate and prep the wedding tent, but she’s down to two days, if she’s lucky.
Kristin: I thought Mina would say, “Don’t worry, I’ll have all the guys come and help set up chairs.” Although Bridget might not have wanted that stress, too!
Megan: Mina and MJ can always go destress at the Iron Timbers workshop, where they get to play with fire and metal. This time, they check in when Iron Timbers is cutting the speakeasy’s staircase brackets with the big laser machine.
Kristin: The design was a great combination of old and new.
Megan: Yeah, the brackets are each a large, thick scroll of black metal, and they will hold up simple black floating treads. Nothing old about the kitchen, which is all new and shiny and finally finished. Alison, the Gallery on 16th pastry chef for the wedding, comes by to see it. She calls it a dream with plenty of counter space, storage, and refrigeration. I like that the bar stools are around a corner, two on one side and two on the other, instead of all in a row. Much easier for chatting.
Kristin: It turned out great. And I love the bar stools, too—actually, that’s my favorite way to sit at the bar in a bar!
Good Bones: Risky Business “Race to the Perfect Wedding” Sanders Street house kitchen islandPhoto by The Home Aesthetic, courtesy Two Chicks and a Hammer
Megan: The fopper—faux copper—is now installed on the turret, like a big beautiful beacon. The turf installers arrive to see where they can make up time in prep to make the timeline work. The cold weather is the wild card. If they get lucky with the weather, maybe the concrete will cure faster than expected and the turf team can get started earlier.
Kristin: That is a LOT of concrete! I didn’t realize it was the foundation for ALL of the turf, too. And how do they anchor the tent?
Megan: Maybe they installed tent anchors. Time out for wedding dresses! Mina goes to see Mel try on her gown at The Wedding Studio, owned by one of Mina’s good friends. It was a pretty little break, but luckily it didn’t take up a ton of time.
Kristin: So the drama in this whole episode is weather-dependent, but Mina is almost in a tank top driving to the dress shop? I’m so confused.
Megan: Oh, just wait! It gets worse. In the next scene, she’s bundled up again. Back at the house, we’re on our third scene of the basement staircase. This time it’s mid-installation and there’s some issue with the frozen ground complicating the installation of the landings or treads that have to be screwed into the perimeter wall. Knowing that whatever the problem is will eventually get worked out takes a little steam out of this for me. Or do you think the speakeasy finish line is in jeopardy?
Kristin: Nah, they’ll pull it out. And wait … shh … did you hear that? Iron Timbers woodworking son, Dustin, actually spoke! I feel like that is the first time I’ve heard his voice—although it was brief. He must be a man of few words.
Megan: Either that or everything he says has to be edited out! Nah, he’s probably deferring to his dad and brother most of the time. There’s a big snowfall before concrete is poured, but the pouring does happen. Then the turf arrives. Finley smiles for the first time in months. Then, a few days before the wedding, Bridget pops by to prepare—and it’s springtime. No signs of snow, big green trees, and Mina and Bridget aren’t wearing coats. The wedding was in January—here’s their announcement. They pulled it off!
Kristin: The announcement is an interesting peek into their day. Complete with a wedding planner who doubles as a bridesmaid, a Witch of Honor, and three dogs! Did the pups get to go to the reception?
Megan: Hmm, Mina didn’t create a barkeasy for dogs who attend weddings. Next time. The house doesn’t have guest parking because it’s in a residential area. Parking for the wedding was arranged at Goodwill, two blocks away, and they had a shuttle since it was winter.
Kristin: We speculated a few weeks ago about parking. I wonder if this will be a regular thing for the Goodwill store. And, after all of this, Mel and Curtis had their reception somewhere else? I’d still like to know how the neighbors feel about dealing with music and crowds on their street, possibly multiple times a week.
Megan: I’d want a standing invitation to the open bar for my troubles.
Kristin: I want one for the whiplash I got in this episode. During the Blue Ocean shopping trip, we saw furniture that was in the house weeks ago. When Mina and Bridget tour the backyard and speakeasy “the day before set up,” Bridget is wearing flip-flops or maybe mules. It’s sunny, then it’s snowing. It’s dirty, then it’s clean. And to top it off, they’re rolling out turf in the street. It’s chaos!
Megan: I stopped trying to piece it together and just look at pretty things, like the speakeasy. The staircase is a regular one with two turns in the tight space, much more functional than a spiral. The dirty cellar is now drywalled with some sandblasted brick left exposed. It’s small, but with a wine room and a bar, groomsmen will be happy hanging out there before the wedding.
Mina Hawk pours a glass of wine in the basement wine cellar and speakeasy of the home.Photo by High Noon/Discovery+, courtesy Two Chicks and a Hammer
Kristin: The dusty coral sofa was a great find. The perfect pop of color. In fact, everything came out well. The house has more detail and interesting decor than the usual Good Bones series. I would have liked a little budget breakdown at the end since so much of this special series was focused on money.
Megan: Me, too. But it might have put Finley’s health at risk. Hopefully she was on a beach somewhere during the wedding. Overall, I liked Risky Business a lot. I do wonder if anything was a bit manufactured (like maybe the original timeline, which Mina then shrunk two weeks mid-season to book the wedding) to create such a strong narrative, and it felt like it could have been one or two episodes shorter. At the end, we had already seen most of the spaces, for instance. There wasn’t a big reveal.
Kristin: Everything seemed a little hurried in the end, which I understand that they had a deadline. The first couple episodes were very detailed, while the last few were rushed to wind up the series and tie it up with a bow. I feel like the editing could have balanced out a little.
Megan: Sure. But we’re splitting hairs. It was a great accomplishment to finish this huge project, make it beautiful, give Indy a new venue, and create a legacy for Mina’s family. Back to regular Good Bones next week—which, according to a crew member online, is still being filmed! Risky!
