Steve Hawk doesn’t hold back when talking about his wife, Good Bones co-host and HGTV darling Mina Starsiak-Hawk, whose seventh season of Good Bones recently aired on HGTV. While recounting the couple’s meeting, Steve admits the word “ballsy” was one of the first to pop into his mind when he spotted Mina (at the time 28 years old to his 31) with her always-long auburn hair, sitting across a bar wearing a Colts sweatshirt.

“I was intimidated,” he explains. “So —” “So, he avoided me,” Mina finishes the thought for him, with a slight smirk and an eye roll.

In Steve’s defense, “beautiful” was the very first word that entered his mind after seeing Mina — which he disclosed in a text message to the mutual friend who’d orchestrated the setup. The casual group gathering at a sports bar was supposed to cultivate a sweet moment where the two hit it off, but Steve “played it cool” all night. In the end, as Mina remembers, “I texted him and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Are we trying this again for real tomorrow, or what?'”

A Timeline

Mina's text worked its magic: She and Steve began spending more time together, and after "some messiness on both ends," they officially started dating.

“I’m a lot better at communicating now than I was then,” Steve says, crediting Mina for teaching him how to talk through his emotions.

Ten years together will do that — especially when two people have gone through as much as Mina and Steve have. As an audience, we’ve followed their journey: from marriage to infertility treatments to parenthood (with a lot of home renovations in between).

In the Beginning

About a year into their relationship, Mina surprised Steve with a special Valentine's Day gift: a customized Indiana University of Bloomington key that unlocked the doors to Mina’s house. “The way she asked me to move in was really cute,” Steve says.

Just a couple years later, Steve returned the favor with an elaborate and adorably thought-out scavenger hunt. The end game: a ring. Steve proposed at the 50-yard line of the Indianapolis Colts’ training field. (A subtle nod to the night they met? We like to think so.)

On June 16, 2016, the duo was married at the historic 1899 building in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mina wore a mermaid-style dress by Romona Keveza and Steve donned a classic black tuxedo.

A Forever Promise

Mina and Steve have always been upfront about their personal lives, struggles and all. “[Society] tends to only show the awesome stuff,” says Mina. “We have a great relationship, and a lot of the time it’s amazing, but sometimes it sucks.”

A few months after Steve moved in with Mina, his best friend died in a car accident. “Steve has a small bubble of people,” says Mina. “So it was really, really hard for him.” In the following four years, Steve’s mom, dad and sister passed away. He and Mina also had two kids and we went through the emotional in vitro fertilization (IVF) process with them. “I mean this in a way positive way,” says Steve, “but we’ve had a lifetime of sh*t happen to us.”

They learned to lean on each other through the bad, as well as celebrate the good. When asked how it feels to look back on all the success, heartache and loving moments they’ve shared together over the span of about 10 years, Mina responds, “It feels like a story. It doesn’t feel real sometimes.”

Another little-known fact: “The Good Bones production team has been pretty much the same since Season 1, so they’ve been there through a lot of it, which is crazy,” says Mina.

Navigating Parenthood

In the summer of 2018, Mina gave birth to the couple's first child, Jack Drew Hawk (the name Drew honors Steve’s late friend).

After a year of trying for a second child with no success, Mina took to Instagram to announce she was beginning the process of IVF. “I’ll keep posting for the hundreds of women who have messaged me, saying thank you and appreciating the openness of the process that so many people seem to go through,” she wrote back in 2019.

Mina gets what she wants. (Remember the night Steve didn’t make the first move, but Mina texted him anyway?) Case in point: Soon after starting IVF, the couple was told they had around a 1% chance of actually conceiving. The options were dwindling — one doctor even told Mina a donor egg was likely the only feasible option. But, of course, Mina didn’t take no for an answer. They got a second opinion, then tried intrauterine insemination (IUI) as a “hail Mary,” according to Mina.

A few weeks later, she discovered she was pregnant. In September 2020, Mina and Steve welcomed Charlotte "Charlie" Hawk into the world.

More than three years later, the question of whether or not Jack would have a sibling no longer hangs in the balance. Instead they debate who the bigger pushover is when it comes to parenting.

“I am normally,” says Steve. “But lately it’s been Mina.”

“Are you crazy?!?” Mina says.

After a long discussion about routines, bedtimes and brown milk — Jack and Charlie’s name for chocolate milk — Mina and Steve come to an agreement most moms and dads can relate to: Their parenting norms ebb and flow.

Success in Love and Life

Currently Mina and Steve are enjoying life with two kids. Steve’s HawkFit side hustle is taking off, and Mina still enjoys taking chances on real estate opportunities (Risky Business, anyone?). They keep their past close — the keychain Mina presented to Steve as a clever way to ask him to move in still hangs on his keychain six years after leaving that house — while stepping forward with vigor and excitement.

And, of course, they carry on Steve’s family traditions. “Fans wonder why we always kiss three times [in a row],” says Mina. “It came from Steve. His mom always used to give him three squeezes. It means ‘I love you.’”

Stream previous seasons of Good Bones on Max. Follow Mina on Instagram at @mina_starsiak_hawk.