Good Bones Recap: Season 7, Episode 8
Good Bones “Two Chicks Forever Home” HQ exteriorPhoto by The Home Aesthetic
Happy mid-season finale, HGTV fans! Good Bones is heading into a six-week break as Mina Hawk’s new show, Good Bones: Risky Business, takes over the time slot starting next week. Contributing editor Megan Fernandez and art director Kristin Sims, will be watching just as soon as we recap this week’s detour from nugget renos and mansion makeovers.
This episode focuses on building the first Two Chicks headquarters from the ground up, a culmination of the storyline running through the first half of the season. Not only is the building big at 6,000 square feet, it’s symbolically huge. It shows how far the company has come after renovating more than 100 homes and becoming one of HGTV’s biggest hits.
Known simply as HQ, the building is on the main drag of Bates-Hendricks (East and Minnesota streets, to be exact—they showed the street signs, so it’s no secret). It’s close to their retail store, Two Chicks District Co. (“District Co.”) and many Two Chicks homes. Even though it’s a commercial building, it will look like a house to blend in with the neighborhood.
Kristin: This is the fifth office space for Two Chicks. They have been bouncing around for years. HQ will have a reception area, a design office, two conference rooms, a kitchen, five offices, two open coworking spaces, a locker room for cleaning up after demo, tons of storage—but only one bathroom?
Megan: Sounds like my childhood home—nine people, one bathroom. I don’t recommend it. It looks like Mina isn’t giving herself a huge office. Also, no space for Karen’s crap?
Kristin: No, but Karen advocates for daycare space for the kids.
Megan: HQ is a smart financial move for Two Chicks. Currently, they spend $7,000 per month leasing office and storage space. Their mortgage on HQ will be around $2,000. Mina is budgeting about $260,000 for the construction (plus, the lot cost $30,000). Karen points out that Mina is a smart spender, buying appliances and finishes on sale and that kind of thing. She probably doesn’t get enough credit for her business sense. It’s not easy to grow a business.
Kristin: We begin the episode as the team meets on the empty lot to measure out the space—which, of course, results in a chaotic chorus of who wants what where. This scene of herding cats almost rivals the usual demo time.
Megan: The boys request a float tank at one point. The best part was that they still found poop on the ground, because as Tad says, every place they do has to have poop.
Kristin: Speaking of, the third time they show the drawings, they have added a bathroom to the main level. Good planning.
Megan: Similarly, Cory’s very proud of his crotch sweat after doing some manual labor on a ridiculously humid day. Once they get going on construction, the attention turns toward picking bedrooms—I mean, offices—inside. Tad and Cory say they always get last pick. Tad compares it to Harry Potter having to sleep in the closet. So Tad’s a … Hufflepuff? Maybe Slytherin.
Kristin: Sorry, you’re on your own here. I don’t know enough about the series.
Megan: Well, you’re a Ravenclaw.
Kristin: MJ is a little pouty about his situation. He loses some of the design office space to storage for District Co. merchandise.
Megan: All he wanted was a quiet spot for his team and materials, but now the office is cramped and he doesn’t want to move upstairs with everyone else. Drama! Who wins between Mina and MJ?
Kristin: Mina knows how to keep her team happy, another underrated quality of a business leader. She points out that the downstairs area he wanted didn’t have windows, and natural light is good for design, so she gives him the enclosed playroom space instead. He’s happy.
Kristin: This is a good solution. It was kind of odd to put the kids’ area at the doorsteps of the employees. This keeps the whole work area intact. The kids’ space will move.
Megan: Picking out furniture and finishes, Mina wants it to feel like people are working from home. But that’s impossible. Nothing is home except home. A couch in an office is not like working from home, alone, in sweats, with your own kitchen and bathroom.
Kristin: Iron Timbers makes an appearance, even in the HQ! They are building cool black-frame glass walls for the conference room.
Megan: Another unique feature in HQ is a spy window into the kids’ room from Mina’s and Finley’s offices. All the kids in the Two Chicks family come together to make artwork for their playroom.
Good Bones “Two Chicks Forever Home” playroomPhoto by The Home Aesthetic
Kristin: Mina’s daughter is wearing little flare pants! The playroom is in such a better location next to “Mom’s” office. But who’s babysitting while they work?
Megan: Bee Gee, of course. That’s Karen—BG stands for “best grandma.” Speaking of kids, Cory and Tad are crabby about the wallpaper Mina chose for their workspace. It has kind of cartoon-y images of tools. They’re like, are we decorating Jack’s room? To add insult to injury, they have to install it!
Kristin: I can’t blame them. It was a little obvious. It looked better hung—and shockingly they did a great job hanging it. But hopefully a nice, big piece of furniture will go on that wall.
Megan: Will you settle for a Demo Boys calendar? Tad has been cooking up this idea for a while, and sure enough, the four of them do a photo shoot, which luckily is part parody, despite Cory’s promise of sex appeal. I mean, MJ was booty-tooching a demo’d wall.
Kristin: Do they plan to sell the calendar at District Co.? Anyway, next, Karen and Cory are creating a gallery wall of photos of some of their renos. They can’t include all, so they have to pick. This trip down memory lane first stops at the Purple People Eater house, which they painted two shades of purple.
View this post on Instagram
Megan: They reminisce fondly of finding a voodoo doll on the walkthrough. When it was time for the reveal to the owner, the doll had disappeared. Karen says it showed up on her own bedroom floor a year later. CREEEEEEPY.
Kristin: Don’t know if I believe it.
Megan: The gallery wall has only nine photos. There was a lot of room for more. Why not fill it up? Show every house?
Kristin: I thought they’d have more, too. But they have worked on almost 100 houses, so that would have been a lot of trips to Ikea for frames!
Megan: That is totally a Ravenclaw observation. Very logical.
Kristin: The furniture’s here! They go neutral for a design office, where they will meet with clients. They want to take on more client renovations.
Megan: For the reveal, Mina invites her best friend, Adrienne Love, who owns The Wedding Studio, with several locations in Indy and Louisville. Also, local artists Justin Vining and Kyle Ragsdale get a peek, as do some relatives.
Kristin: I guess our invites got lost in the mail?
Megan: I’m glad because I couldn’t have competed with Mina’s cool outfit, a tank, heels, and baggy jeans cinched at the ankle. They might have been acid-washed, too. I love the big sectional they have in the coworking space. Roundish furniture is big now. But it feels like they have too much table and desk space. I guess Mina knows what they need.
Kristin: I don’t think we ever see how big their team really is.
Megan: I love it when Mina’s husband, Steve, says he is so proud of her.
Kristin: Also, it’s touching when Karen gets teary talking about what HQ symbolizes for Mina and the company. She says it’s a testament to believing in what you’re doing and persevering.
Megan: I believe that fans will persevere right through the HQ front door.
Kristin: An even better reason not to have a reception desk right inside the door!
Megan: I drive this street every day and have been looking for HQ and haven’t picked it out. So the house definitely blends in. But fans will find it because the HQ sign is hanging on the porch.
Kristin: Maybe they will be staying down the street at Mina’s new bed and breakfast.
Megan: That’s right—the preview for next week offers the first look at this dramatic, scary project. It’s called Good Bones: Risky Business, and not just because they put Mina on the roof of this huge house for a promo shot. Yeesh. Too high for me. She looks tiny up there because the house is so big.
Kristin: The name refers to her chancy business decision to buy this behemoth and turn it into a B&B. The preview shows her in an excavator possibly tearing up a sidewalk she doesn’t have permission to; a contractor saying he’s stopping work; Finley announcing that they have a problem; and Mina looking exhausted and distressed. But the peek at the finished product looks gorgeous.
Megan: I guess we’ll find out how good of a businessperson Mina really is. I can’t wait to follow along!
Kristin: In the meantime, look for our chat with Mina about the new show and the first half of Season 7.
Megan: My question: Will they ever outgrow their HQ? Yours?
Kristin: Will visitors be able to afford to stay at the B&B? Will Tad cook breakfast? And will he wear jorts under the apron?
