A Deliciously Inviting New York Abode
The nutritionist and cookbook guru joined with her loved ones to create a compound that rivals the Kennedys’
Today nutrition and health expert Joy Bauer, MS, RDN, moved from her conveniently located NYC home for one reason only: family! “My sister, her husband and four kids moved into this new development that was going up in Westchester, N.Y.,” Joy, 53, tells Closer of the suburb just north of the city. “My brother, his wife and their two kids bought a house here, and so did my cousin and my two closest friends, so this wound up being a compound! I feel like I’m related to half the kids in the school district.”
As an added bonus, the fivebedroom, six-bath house she shares with her husband, Ian Bauer, 49, and kids Jesse, 22, Cole, 20, and Ayden, 17, boasts 4,000 square feet to fit them all. “We have an open-door policy,” she says. “Everyone is in and out of our home. We have builtin babysitters, drivers, carpoolers... And I have massive taste testers!”
What’s more, they were able
to direct the builders as the house went up. And her loved ones made Joy’s
75-minute commute a worthwhile trade-off when she moved here 17 years ago. She kept them in mind when she consulted with the builders to make sure they emphasized the home’s “togetherness factor.”
“My priority was the kitchen and the hangout room,” she says. “I’m always in the kitchen, so I wanted to make sure everything was connected and I was never huddled in the corner, missing out on the fun!” Her family didn’t miss out on giving the founder of Nourish Snacks plenty of feedback, either, when she was creating her new healthy cookbook, From Junk Food to Joy Food.
To make things even more enjoyable,
Joy and Ian had the builders create a bonus movie room with a “ginormous screen and a poster from each of our favorite movies,” she reveals. “It’s our cozy little escape that we can go to with the kids or our friends.”
“We’re very different, but no one is more supportive than the five of us are of each other.”
— Joy with ( from left) Cole, Jesse, Ayden & Ian
Joy drew up her vision for homey window treatments and hired a decorator who “ran with it” to bring it all to life. “I think she thought I was a little crazy, but she was cool,” Joy says. “I see each room as its own entity.
It’s a bit of a mishmash — they don’t blend and I don’t blend in, so it works!” That meant a gold living room (dubbed Gatsby’s room, since it’s their Cavachon pup’s favorite hangout), a green music room and a red kitchen.
“I was drawn to red because it’s my favorite color, and the kitchen is my favorite room in the house…. But I have had it for a very, very long time, so I think a new color is in my immediate future!” she says with a laugh.
Thinking about her family’s history here brings Joy back to that happy moment when she knew she’d found the perfect place for her family. “We were building the house, standing on a mound of dirt in front with my sister and brother-in-law to my right, and my brother and sister-in-law to my left, and we all knew,” she recalls with a smile. “It was like a kumbaya!”
— Reporting by Ilyssa Panitz