Hi, Good Bones fans! Welcome back to our favorite home renovation show, now in its eighth season. Sad news first—this is the final season of Good Bones, ending a long and successful run for the hit program based in Indianapolis. More sad news—my fellow recapper Kristin Sims beat Good Bones to it and retired early. But I’ll be here recapping all 10 episodes following the remodeling work of family-focused Two Chicks and a Hammer near downtown Indianapolis.
In “Income Property Issues,” Two Chicks owner Mina Hawk and her crew kick off the season in Bates-Hendricks, where they can still afford a diamond in the rough—unlike neighboring Fountain Square, where it all started for Two Chicks. The series premiered with a Fountain Square house purchased for $30,000. Nearly a decade later, Mina is thrilled to find a fixer-upper in Bates-Hendricks for $75,000.
“It actually has a structure standing on a lot?” project manager Cory Miller says to Mina. “You’re winning at that point.”
The house is in fair shape. The grossest thing we see is a juniper bush with tons of underwear in it. And there’s great promise for an income suite upstairs, which Mina says young, savvy urban buyers want these days. After $275,000 in renovations, two downstairs apartments will be combined into three bedrooms and two baths, and an upstairs apartment accessible by its own entrance will be a snug two-bedroom, one-bath that Mina says could rent for—cough—$1,800 per month. This sounds like a bargain to residents on the coasts, but for comparison, it’s nearly double my mortgage for a four-bedroom house, 2 miles away. She expects to list this house for $400,000, for a $50,000 profit.
Knowing it’s the final season casts a pall over the episode at first. But by the time crew leader Tad is slinging demo forks into walls and muscle man Austin is body-slamming a cabinet onto the ground, it feels like everything is back to normal.
The house isn’t filthy, but it is full of left-behind belongings. Mina bought the house from the original owners, and it came with everything from a wired drill, to a daybed, to architectural blueprints collected over nearly 100 years. When a foundation issue wipes out some of her design budget, Mina plans to save money by reusing some of the inherited items.
Another casualty of the foundation fiasco are the accordion doors that Cory had his heart set on for the house’s back wall. But they cost $13,000, and Mina nixes them. Cory’s horror face upon hearing the news is priceless, though. But Mina saves the day by announcing a fun replacement with a hip thrust: “Overhead garage door—boom!” He asks what color, and when she says white with glass, Cory nearly weeps.
The garage door will create a long sightline through the main floor to the backyard and flood the home with natural light. To add some drama to the airy space, Mina and MJ Coyle, the Two Chicks interior designer, decide to blend modern and traditional elements. In the kitchen, the modern is a black countertop and matching floor-to-ceiling backsplash. Whispery-green cabinets and brass hardware lean traditional for balance. In one bathroom, a marble chair rail separates sections of herringbone tile, another modern/traditional blend.
Salvaged elements include the front door, complete with a built-in doorbell that still works—it gets stripped and becomes a sliding pantry door. Neutral-colored architectural blueprints are hung like scrolls, saving money on framing. A twin bed frame is turned into a daybed for the backyard. MJ paints a runner on the apartment staircase as a budget hack.
For the exterior, Mina and MJ forgo white because of the giant white house across the street that would steal its thunder. Instead, they go with a shade Mina calls “a super-soft-barely-looks-green-only-looks-green-because-it’s-next-to-green.” The description won’t fit on the paint can, but it’s beautiful.
For the reveal, an elderly man who grew up in the house returns, holding hands with his wife. He mentions that his father poured the concrete porch, which is still sturdy enough to keep. They notice the front door now on the pantry. A younger relative who came with them loves the garage door, though the older man looks confused by it. Still, he’s glad to see the one-car garage that his father added still standing.
Mina says the family sold the house to her because they knew she wouldn’t tear it down, and their joyful expressions upon seeing the place once again full of love and warmth are her reward. (The house sold after the episode was filmed.) The prices might have changed on Good Bones over eight seasons, but the authentic emotional element hasn’t. Here’s to nine more episodes of happy tears and (hopefully) no teardowns.
