LIFE

Will Indy mom/daughter rehab team be next stars of HGTV?

Vic Ryckaert
vic.ryckaert@indystar.com

Two Chicks and a Hammer is famous in Fountain Square for transforming hole-in-the-wall dumps into gorgeous homes.

Now, the world has a chance to meet mother-daughter duo Karen Jensen and Mina Starsiak when they star in a pilot for a new reality series, "Two Chicks and a Hammer," premiering 11 p.m. Monday on HGTV.

"It doesn't seem real," Starsiak said.

Two Chicks and a Hammer has rebuilt more than 20 homes, primarily in Fountain Square, where Jensen and Starsiak live side-by-side in homes they've fixed up.

Jensen, 55, is the "hippy-dippy dreamer," according to her daughter. She has a penchant for channel glass (a fancy kind of glass block) and has a white-painted taxidermy deer head (yes, a real dead deer) on her living room wall.

Starsiak, 30, is the "sieve" who keeps her mom's dreams grounded in reality and adjusts the wild design schemes into ideas that appeal to most people.

Gritty chicks on TV

Their work, over-the-top personalities and gritty-yet-striking looks drew the attention of a talent scout for High Noon Entertainment, who found the pair on Facebook and contacted them in January 2014.

At first, Starsiak was skeptical. Was this a scam? Was someone trying to steal their personal information? Should they call the cops?

"I was like 'I know we're not that cool,' " Starsiak said. "So I did a little bit of research on the development company and find out that they're legit."

High Noon produces a host of popular cable TV reality shows, including Discovery Network's "Cake Boss" and HGTV's "Fixer Upper" and "House Hunters."

There was a Skype interview. Later, High Noon sent Jensen and Starsiak a digital camera and told them to film themselves for two weeks and send it back.

Producers liked what they saw. Starsiak and Jensen signed a contract; High Noon dispatched professionals to shoot the pilot when they rehabbed a home over six weeks last fall.

The crews filmed the pair working on a home just west of Fountain Square in the 1200 block of Wright Street, an area Jensen and Starsiak say is ripe for a turn around.

There's no telling whether there will be more "Two Chicks and a Hammer" episodes after the one-hour pilot airs. Jensen and Starsiak expect to find out in the next couple months.

Either way, business is good.

Chicks find their hammer

Starsiak and Jensen rehabbed their first home in 2007.

Starsiak had recently graduated from Indiana University. All her friends were getting "big kid jobs" while she worked as a waitress and searched for her true calling.

Jensen, an attorney, was practicing law, defending the accused in the same courtrooms where she had worked putting bad guys in prison as a deputy prosecutor.

Even though Starsiak was broke, she wanted a house. She paid $37,500 for an old home in a rough Eastside neighborhood. Jensen cosigned the mortgage and Starsiak used a Housing and Urban Development loan to invest about $100,000 into repairs.

They did most of the work themselves, and they loved it.

Soon, they bought their first investment home, a broken down pit in Fountain Square. They paid $12,000 and invested about $35,000 into repairs.

They bought another house; fixed it up and sold it. Then another, and another.

Starsiak got her real estate license. They came up with the name and have been rebuilding homes ever since.

"We built the company from the ground up with no debt," Starsiak said. "I would go wait tables and she would literally go lawyer some stuff. We come back and say 'This is how much we've got. Let's go lay some tile!'

That first Fountain Square house, an investment of about $47,000, sold for $69,000. They invested about $95,000 into their next home and sold it for about $134,000.

Starsiak's personal home became a solid investment as well. She lived there for five years, invested about $137,500 and sold it for $169,000.

Now, they typically invest about $180,000 in each home and sell for about $234,000.

Debt free by necessity

The young company was debt free by necessity, Jensen said, noting they "didn't look good to the bank."

The recession hit and having very little debt was a blessing. Starsiak and Jensen kept renovating homes at a time when many in the real estate businesses went bankrupt.

They rebuilt a few homes each year and learned from every house. They started with the worst home on a block and soon watched others move in and work on their own homes.

Jensen said they work hard to make every Two Chicks and a Hammer house a place where they would feel comfortable living.

"First of all these are neighbors," Jensen said. "If we don't build a good house for them, we live right next door. That could be really uncomfortable. We really want them to be happy."

They have a knack for milking every square inch of storage out of a small floor plan. That dead area behind staircases becomes a closet.

They double stack kitchen cabinets, leaving no gap between the cabinet top and the ceiling. How do you reach up there to store stuff? Use a step stool.

They have built a solid reputation in Fountain Square, where buyers now seek out them.

"We liked their style"

Lindsay and Jeff Carl agreed to buy their Two Chicks and a Hammer home when it was still just a rickety, skeletal shambles on a dirty lot.

"We went to the lot, and it looked a mess, but we signed an intent to buy contract," Lindsay Carl said. "We liked their style."

The Carls moved into their three-bedroom home three years ago and have no regrets.

"It has a classic feel, not something that is going to go out of style," Lindsay Carl said.

Paul F. Smith, president of the non-profit Southeast Neighborhood Development, Inc., said Two Chicks and a Hammer stands out from the dozen or so investors who are rehabbing homes in the Fountain Square area.

"These ladies have done it for a long time," Smith said. "That says they know what they're doing— because these things can kill you if you don't know what you're doing."

Starsiak and Jensen were among the first private developers to invest in Fountain Square. They've been successful, but they are not millionaires — yet.

If HGTV wants more shows, Jensen plans to close her law practice and work full time on rehabbing. They also plan to start rehabilitating more homes and stick to strict 10-week construction schedule to accommodate filming.

If not, Jensen plans to retire in five years or so and spend some time on boat somewhere where the weather is warm and the drinks are cold.

Starsiak plans to find the next neighborhood in need and keep on building.

Jensen said the real thrill has been watching the community transform.

"We do not flip houses," Jensen said. "We stay in one geographic area so that we can make a difference in the neighborhood.

"We are rehabilitating an entire neighborhood, one house at a time."

Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.

"Two Chicks and A Hammer"
• What: HGTV is airing a pilot for a reality show featuring Indianapolis home rehabbers Karen Jensen and her daughter Mina Starsiak, who run Two Chicks and a Hammer.
• When: 11 p.m. - midnight Monday, May 4.