{"id":103207,"date":"2025-12-12T08:14:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T08:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/12\/kate-baers-house-is-brimming-with-kids-and-pets-but-the-door-is-always-open\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T08:14:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T08:14:36","slug":"kate-baers-house-is-brimming-with-kids-and-pets-but-the-door-is-always-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/12\/kate-baers-house-is-brimming-with-kids-and-pets-but-the-door-is-always-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate Baer’s House Is Brimming With Kids and Pets, But The Door Is Always Open"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"Kate<\/div>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Photos by Lyndsay Hannah Photography<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a hosting house,\u201d says bestselling poet Kate Baer<\/a>. \u201cOur family culture is, \u2018Let\u2019s have people over!\u2019\u201d She lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with her husband, four kids, three cats, and dog named Maybe (as in \u201cmaybe we\u2019ll get a dog\u201d). Here, Kate reflects on marriage, parenting, and writing, and shares the toy her kids are still fighting over\u2026<\/p>\n

LIBRARY<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Wall paint color: Benjamin Moore<\/a>. Ceiling fixture: Home Depot<\/a>. Rug: West Elm via Facebook Marketplace (\u201c12 years ago!\u201d), similar<\/a>. Entry table: Facebook Marketplace.<\/em><\/p>\n

On finding a dream home<\/strong>: My friend\u2019s mom lived in this house for many years and actually raised her own four children here. I never thought it would be my house! But in 2021, we bought it from the family and have been slowly making it our own.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Bookcase paint color: Benjamin Moore<\/a>. Table, chairs and rug: hand-me-downs from relatives.<\/em><\/p>\n

On recently loved books:<\/strong> I was bowled over by The Correspondent<\/a>, a warm, exquisite novel by Virginia Evans. Beautyland<\/a> by Marie-Helene Bertino was absolutely stunning. And I inhaled Heart the Lover<\/a> so quickly, it went up my nose and out my eyeballs.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Flower photo: Jamie Beck<\/a>. Sofa: Poly & Bark<\/a>. Stool: Home Goods, similar<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

On a beloved piece of art<\/strong>: The Jamie Beck<\/a> photograph on the left is my most prized art piece. She sent it to me because she said it reminded her of my first book cover<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On board games<\/strong>: There are tons of memes about how people don\u2019t want to play games, but I actually think they do. You don\u2019t have to play games the whole time you\u2019re hanging out! Spoons<\/a> is so much fun for adults, while kids are watching a movie. Other popular games in our household include Fishbowl<\/a>, Mafia<\/a>, and Codenames<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LIVING ROOM<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Paint: Benjamin Moore<\/a>. Sofa: Interiors Home, similar<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

On a very glam piano<\/strong>: The piano came with the house. It belonged to my friend\u2019s grandmother, Lucille, so we call the piano Lucille in her honor. I feel like Elton John when I sit down to play. Some of my kids take lessons, and it\u2019s my dream for all of them to be able to play at least one song.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Print: Etsy<\/a>. Chair: Interiors Home, similar<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

On sneaking in plants<\/strong>: I have a hard time picking decor, so I just put plants everywhere. They bring so much life and beauty to a space. I slyly collect them and hope that my husband, Austin, won\u2019t kill me because he\u2019s the one who cares for them all.<\/p>\n

On the best spot in the house<\/strong>: The kids gravitate to this chair to do their homework. I love reading here in the evening. Everyone fights over that chair, but it\u2019s mine.<\/p>\n

KITCHEN<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Table: made by Austin, Kate\u2019s husband. Chairs: \u201cMy parents got them off the side of the road for $40 ten years ago.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

On the joy of hosting<\/strong>: Gathering people together and fostering community is something I work really hard at. We\u2019ve hosted fall fests, as well as movie nights in the basement. We invite people over every Fourth of July and every New Year\u2019s Eve. There\u2019s a misconception that you need a perfect home to host. But I was doing this when our family of six lived in 1,200 square feet. When I\u2019m invited somewhere, I could not care less about what the kitchen backsplash looks like or what we eat for dinner. Being welcomed into someone else\u2019s home is such a gift.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On swinging stools<\/strong>: They\u2019re squeaky as hell because they\u2019re like 30 years old, but it\u2019s so<\/em> easy to sweep under them. More people need stools like these.<\/p>\n

On country living<\/b>: After dinner, my husband and I try to leave our phones behind and walk our dog in our neighbors\u2019 fields. On warm days, we\u2019ll drag chairs to the front yard hill and look across the valley. Even if we sit in silence, it\u2019s just nice to be together.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On special souvenirs<\/b>: We take an annual family vacation to Florida, where we all love hunting<\/a> for<\/a> shark teeth<\/a>. I got a big shadow box and my husband glued them in. He also put one sneaky shell in there. We tell any kids who come over, \u2018There\u2019s one thing in there that\u2019s not a shark tooth.\u2019 It takes forever to find.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On playlists<\/strong>: Every night, I play the same dinner playlist<\/a>. It\u2019s French caf\u00e9 vibes, very low key. The music tells everyone that it\u2019s time to come to the table. I have a Saturday morning playlist<\/a> that I turn on when we\u2019re getting our chores done so we can enjoy the rest of the weekend. I have a writing playlist<\/a> and a playlist to pump myself up<\/a> before going out on the town. Every routine gets a playlist \u2014 they\u2019re such a nice way to signal where we are in our day.<\/p>\n

STAIRS<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On a controversial print<\/strong>: My friend\u2019s mom, the former owner, picked out the leopard print runner. Everyone called her crazy and said she\u2019d regret it, but she never did. We\u2019ve changed a lot of things since we bought the house, so this carpet is a nice reminder of who lived here before us.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On the family cats<\/strong>: One day, a cat showed up on our property. My youngest, the first grader, named him Hot Dog. We got George and Kimberly a year ago. My soul-cat had passed away, and we were looking to add some new friends into our lives.<\/p>\n

PRIMARY BEDROOM<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Bed and bedside tables: Warbler Woodworks<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

On an oasis<\/b>: I always wanted a bedroom that felt like sleeping on a cloud, and I feel such deep peace when I\u2019m in this room. We kept it very minimal and mostly white, which feels very different from the rest of the house.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

Chair: Facebook Marketplace.<\/em><\/p>\n

On a sweet holdover<\/strong>: When I was younger, I started dating this guy. It felt very casual, so I put him in my phone as Boyfriend. Then, on our wedding day, one of my friends grabbed my phone to change it to Husband, and I said, \u2018Oh, please don\u2019t do that!\u2019 There\u2019s something about Boyfriend. It just feels a little bit sexier and cuter. I\u2019ll never change it.<\/p>\n

OFFICE (BEDROOM CLOSET)<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On squeezing in work<\/strong>: I dropped out of my MFA program when I got pregnant. My husband was in med school, and realistically, we couldn\u2019t pursue both at the same time. Since only one of those paths definitively makes money, it was very easy to decide which one to prioritize when we were talking about finances and having a family. Still, I wrote when I could.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On self-motivation<\/strong>: I say this to young writers all the time: \u201cNo one else cares if you write a book or not. You have to care. No one\u2019s going to make you sit down and write. It\u2019s up to you to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On a room of one\u2019s own<\/strong>: In our last home, every inch of the house was taken, so there was no room for me to have an office or even a desk in a corner. So, I wrote my first book and a lot of the second one at a nearby Panera Bread. The staff there was so kind to me. When the pandemic happened, I wrote in their parking lot, stealing WiFi and turning the car\u2019s heater on and off.<\/p>\n

BATHROOM<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On parenting four kids<\/strong>: I\u2019ve found that having four kids does two things: It makes you extremely organized and also extremely laid back. Because there are so many of them, you have to let things go, but then you also have to focus on what is most important. So, the house isn\u2019t picked up, but everyone had dinner.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On toys<\/strong>: I don\u2019t really buy toys, and I haven\u2019t for a long time. And yet, they\u2019re everywhere. I don\u2019t know where they\u2019re coming from. I don\u2019t know how they get into the house.<\/p>\n

BASEMENT<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On a knockout gift<\/strong>: My daughter got aerial silks last Christmas, and my kids fight over them more than anything else. My daughter does tricks, while the boys just swing and crash into each other. The kits<\/a> are easy to find online, but the tricky part is anchoring it to the ceiling. It needs to be very secure.<\/p>\n

\"Kate<\/p>\n

On ageless toys<\/strong>: My youngest is in first grade, and my oldest is in ninth. There aren\u2019t many things that all the kids want to do together, but Legos are definitely a unifier. I try to have times where the while family comes together, at least once or twice a week. That could be a sit-down dinner, a round of cards, or talking while putting Legos together.<\/p>\n

Thank you so much, Kate<\/a>! And congrats on How About Now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

P.S. Kate\u2019s beauty uniform<\/a>, a funny evening with Kate and Joanna<\/a>, and Kate\u2019s rules for her forties over on Big Salad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Photos by Lyndsay Hannah Photography<\/a> for Cup of Jo.)<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t<\/p>\n

49<\/span> COMMENTS<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n


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Photos by Lyndsay Hannah Photography \u201cWe\u2019re a hosting house,\u201d says bestselling poet Kate Baer. \u201cOur family culture is, \u2018Let\u2019s have people over!\u2019\u201d She lives in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}