Two years after Good Bones came to an end on HGTV, Karen E. Laine is returning to her roots. She announced her exciting career news in an Instagram post on Wednesday, May 28.
Laine will be revisiting life as a lawyer, which is the career she held before she and daughter Mina Starsiak Hawk turned house flipping into a full-time job with their company Two Chicks and a Hammer (Laine retired from the business in 2019, but continued to field DIY projects on Good Bones until the series ended in 2023).
The former HGTV star has joined a law firm in Indianapolis. “Followers are used to seeing my crafting and home improvement content, which I will continue to post, but there will be some changes because I am excited to be joining Josiah Swinney to restart my criminal defense practice,” she shared.
Laine then touched upon the similarities in her careers as a lawyer and home renovator. “I meet people charged with a crime or a run down house on their worst day,” she explained. “It is my job to understand what went wrong, and then use my skills to turn the story in a new direction. As an attorney, I am committed to protecting the constitutional rights of people charged with crimes.”
Fans flooded the comments section with supportive messages for Laine amid her career shift. “Wonderful Karen! It’s great to see you using your legal know how!” someone wrote, while another added, “WOW! You never cease to amaze me but that’s in your nature to always help people.” Another commenter also said, “I can personally say that @kelaine217 is one of the best attorneys. She fought for me and my family, she cares deeply about her clients. Shes a bulldog in the courtroom.”
Good Bones premiered in 2016 and ran for eight seasons before its conclusion in 2023. There was also a 2022 spinoff, Good Bones: Risky Business, and a 2024 spinoff, Good Bones: New Beginnings, which featured Laine and Starsiak Hawk working on separate projects in different states amid a family rift.
While Laine has kept tight-lipped about the difficulties in her relationship with her daughter, Starsiak Hawk often spoke about the feud on her podcast, Mina AF, which ended in June 2024. She revealed in October 2023 that she and Laine “do not talk,” although she said a few months before that that they’re able to “coexist” and be “pleasant enough around each other” at holidays and family events.