Karen E. Laine Falls Through ‘Rotten’ Floor During Wilmington Home Renovation on ‘Good Bones’

Karen E. Laine was joined by her contractors to start renovations on her Wilmington, North Carolina, home. But the HGTV personality ended up taking a spill during the Wednesday, August 21, episode of Good Bones.

Karen E. Laine Faced a Mishap During Her Home Renovation

Karen and her team were pulling up the “rotten” floors in her new space when, all of a sudden, she ended up falling through the floor. When asked if she was OK, Karen said, “I’m fine, I landed on my squishy part.”

It became evident right away that Karen certainly had her work cut out for her while working on the two bedroom, one bathroom home, which was built in the 1900s. “I already fell through the floor once alright, which means this entire floor system needs to be replaced and I can see that the foundation needs to be replaced too,” she said in a confessional.

“This is a lot more money than I thought,” Karen admitted. The DIY expert explained that the first phase of the renovation would be lifting the house and rebuilding the foundation.

“What we need is a brand new continuous pour foundation all the way around the outside of the house,” she said, sharing that it would be around $30,000. “How do I live the rest of my life if I spend that much of my nest egg on this house?”

During her confessional, Karen admitted that she could walk away and sell the house and “be done.”

“There’s no way I’m giving up on my dream,” she said confidently. “I’m just not.”

Lifting the House Was Risky

Viewers then got to see Karen helping lift the house with a jack. The team panicked a little bit during the process, with Karen jumping out of the way when she noticed the beams wobbling.

“The house is in the air, which is fine but its wobbling,” she said. “It made some noises like it wasn’t happy about its situation but its holding. We’re OK.”

In another clip, Karen spoke about the decor for the home that she wanted and was hoping to make the place “bold and colorful.” She met up with a local muralist to help plan out a mural to be painted at her house. She decided she wanted the mural to be painted on her back fence.

Karen headed back to Indianapolis because at the time of filming, her daughter Kelsey was pregnant with her first baby. They had a series of projects to work on before the baby came. While in Indiana, Karen’s contractor called her with bad news. There was a hurricane set to make landfall near her new home. “Hurricane’s are not something I’ve ever had to worry about in Indianapolis,” she said via phone.

Thankfully, they got lucky because all of the storm-proofing Karen’s team did ended up preventing any major damage. They continued on with the renovation. Karen once again traveled to Wilmington to check on the status of the house before returning back to Indiana.

Karen Was Joined by ‘Good Bones’ Royalty

Once in Indiana, she met up with MJ Coyle to help her with the new home’s design.

“There’s a lot to do with this Wilmington house, so I’m bringing MJ in like a little at a time,” Karen said. “So I asked MJ to help me with the Wilmington house because although I am designing it myself, I have a lot of ideas and maybe he can help be a filter and maybe reel me in a little.”

She also got a special visit from some of her grandkids during the episode. She admitted she was “sad” when thinking about the idea of moving to Wilmington away from her grandkids but also excited for them to come to visit.

She returned back to Wilmington, getting a special surprise from Cory Miller. Karen broke down in tears when she saw the completed mural later on in the episode. MJ also showed up at the end of the episode to see the progress on the house and give design insight. Next week, viewers will get to see the completed project!