Two years after HGTV fans watched Karen E. Laine renovate a darling cottage in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she initially intended to retire, she revealed on November 3, 2026, that she still hasn’t found a buyer.
Posting a photo of the light blue, one-bedroom home, she wrote, “Someone needs to live in ‘the vineyard’ full time. I love her, but my visits are not what she needs.”
Karen E. Laine Hoped to Sell Her ‘Good Bones: New Beginnings’ House for $500,000
After a falling out between Laine and her daughter, HGTV’s Mina Starsiak Hawk, their long-running renovation series “Good Bones” ended in 2023. The women appeared separately in a spinoff the following year to update fans on the projects they were each working on. Starsiak Hawk was renovating a lake home getaway for her family not far from their Indianapolis hub, while Laine had moved south.
After divorcing her fourth husband in 2023, Laine said on an episode of the “What’s Up Wilmington” podcast that year that she’d decided to settle into a retirement home in Wilmington after falling in love with the town during a visit years before. She purchased a fixer-upper and began sharing her renovations on Instagram, before the full project was chronicled on “Good Bones: New Beginnings.”
On the two one-hour episodes, Laine said she was intentionally choosing design and decor to make herself happy, including teal-colored wood floors, since it was her personal getaway with no plans to sell it.
But weeks after the show aired in August 2024, Laine changed her mind and put the home she’d purchased for $70,000 in February 2023 back on the market, hoping to fetch $500,000 for it.
Karen E. Laine’s Wilmington Home Has Dropped in Price
A few months after putting her cottage on the market, Laine revealed that she’d purchased a new fixer-upper in Greenfield, Indiana — located about 25 miles east of Indianapolis. When fans asked what happened, Laine shared on Instagram, “five grandkids in Indy that weren’t there when I bought the Wilmington house tipped the scales a different direction. The Wilmington house is for sale and until it sells, I visit there regularly”
But two years later, the one-bedroom, one-bath house has still not sold. The same real estate agent, Debbie Hopper, represents the home, but according to the Zillow listing, the 957-square-foot home’s price dropped to $449,000 in March 2025. It was briefly taken off the market, but returned that June at the same time. But in June 2026, the price dropped again to $399,000.
A lawyer by trade, Laine has done some work with a local attorney while updating her new fixer-upper. In late October, she revealed how the house has turned out after two years of renovations and said the project is finally complete.
Laine has not appeared on HGTV since the 2024 spinoff, but Starsiak Hawk has appeared periodically, including on “House Hunters: All-Stars” and as a judge on “That 90s House.” In 2026, she competed on “Rock the Block” with NFL alum Vernon Davis. In 2027, she’ll return to compete with fellow HGTV star Scott McGillivray on season eight.
Karen E. Laine Reveals Her ‘Good Bones’ Retirement Cottage Still Hasn’t Sold 2 Years After HGTV Renovation