What Happened to 'Good Bones' Mom Karen E. Laine? Her New Chapter

In the eighth and final season of HGTV 's Good Bones , many viewers couldn't help but notice that its mother-daughter stars — Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak Hawk — seemed to drift apart. The Indianapolis home-rehabbing pair had disagreements about all kinds of things, from budget to decor. In fact, the two hardly seemed to interact much during the episodes.

In August 2023, Mina shared on her podcast there there was tension between her and her mom , and that October, Good Bones aired its series finale. At the time, the team was apparently burnt out, and Mina was ready to scale things back with the business she'd founded with her mom, Two Chicks and a Hammer . But what about Karen — what happened to her?

What happened to 'Good Bones' mom Karen E. Laine?

Karen, who stepped back from Two Chicks and a Hammer in 2019 but remained on Good Bones , embarked on a new chapter after the show ended. In fact, HGTV was along for the ride too, and they documented her journey in a spinoff series called Good Bones: New Beginnings , which premiered on Aug. 14, 2024. The limited series features only three episodes, and while the first episode is devoted to Mina's next chapter (in which she renovates a lake house), the final two episodes revolve around Karen as she renovates a beach bungalow.

Fans couldn't help but notice that while this spinoff still included both mother and daughter, they were clearly doing their own individual projects in separate spaces. While Mina headed north of Indianapolis for her reno, Karen went to Wilmington, N.C.

Meanwhile, Karen also debuted a brand-new look on Instagram in late July 2024. She posted a video from her greenhouse, writing: "Who is using tomato cages to support their monsteras and why didn't you tell me what a great idea it was? And yes, I cut my hair. But, no, I didn't notice my bra strap peeking out. At least I'm not chewing gum this time."

Indeed, fans noticed right away that the former lawyer had chopped off her locks. And while a lot of her Instagram followers posted praise for the new look, Karen responded to one of the comments by saying that she's "not convinced" she likes it that short.

If you're curious to keep up with what Karen's been doing, she's pretty active on Instagram, and she posted some updates during the reno process in Wilmington, which is featured on the new spinoff show. In one update posted in March 2024, she was even camping inside the house, despite the fact that the bungalow still didn't have running water yet.

"'Camping' in my Wilmington house (no water yet, one functioning outlet) while we install the most gorgeous flooring I have ever seen. The 10" wide white oak had to be specially milled because of course no one manufactures anything like it. Can't wait to show you!" she wrote.