Emphasizing the garden view

If houses could talk, this little development house in Swarthmore would thank Jeff Jabco and Joe Henderson for turning it into a unique, sun-filled living space with a great garden view.

Jabco and Henderson had lived in the circa-1950 two-bedroom "Cape and a half," with its two floors in the back and one in the front, for 10 years. It was built with a center entrance, a dining room to the left, a living room to the right, and a stairway in the middle.

Both men were busy with their careers and had neither the time nor the money to work on the house. They ignored its many space issues until they could not stand it anymore.

The shortcomings had begun to mount up.

"It was definitely the time for change," Jabco said.

Chief among the house's deficiencies was the fact that, to reach their garden, they had to go out a small side door and walk around.

That was no insignificant issue, especially when you consider that Jabco is executive director of grounds and horticulture coordinator at Swarthmore College and Henderson is a horticulturist at Chanticleer, the pleasure garden in Wayne.

Also serving as a catalyst for change at the house - located on a wide Swarthmore street with large shade trees and plants to provide lots of greenery - was this fact:

"We really liked the community and our neighbors," Henderson said.

Those neighbors - about 100 of them - "come to our open house the Friday before Christmas, and we each cook," Jabco said. "We never had enough room for guests, and the cooks were isolated from the party."

Then, not too long ago, it became clear that Jabco's parents might come to live at the house. Walking up to the second floor would not be an option for them.

So the couple met with architect Mary Holland, who was working on a project at Swarthmore College.

"The big problem we told her about was that there were several isolated rooms . . . the dining room, living room, and study were all separate; there was no space in the kitchen," Henderson said.

And there was that matter of gaining direct access to the outdoors from the kitchen.

What resulted is a design that pivots off the addition of a second kitchen on the first floor and bedrooms upstairs. Leading straight to the garden are new doors from the expanded kitchen and the dining room, which was relocated to the rear of the house.

"The idea was to use as much existing space as possible and open it up and invite the outside in," Henderson said.

Holland's design "flipped" the study that had been in the back of the house, trading places with the dining room at the front. Now, the study can double as a bedroom for Jabco's parents.

And now, even from the front door, you can glimpse the bountiful two-level garden behind the house. That see-through to the kitchen window is possible because Holland's design inserted a large opening in the expanded kitchen wall.

The kitchen itself has become an expansive food-preparation space, with a large stove and two wall ovens on one side of an island and a second cooking area on the other. The newer section was lowered to accommodate a sofa, so the couple's guests can watch their hosts cook.

"I cook a lot for parties, and Joe makes huge casseroles, such as chili and bouillabaisse," Jabco said. "This way, we can both work at the stove without worrying about guests getting too close."

The new dining room (the erstwhile study) looks out to the garden, where there is a raised area surrounded with Japanese maples, sweet magnolias, and oak trees. Wooden lounge chairs and tables make the circular area under the trees a retreat that is hard to leave.

To the right of the front door is a living room with forest-green walls, white trim, and comfortable chairs and sofas. A portrait of a handsome brooding man is displayed over the fireplace - it is not a historic painting, just something the couple saw at a yard sale and bought.

"The house used to be filled with boring whitish walls," Jabco said. "We went to Germany and saw some castles with vibrant colors in the walls and decided this green looks good and makes our furniture look good."

How did they decide what to include in the house? They followed a very simple recipe: "Our only criteria is that we include in our home things we like," Jabco said.

And the long-postponed renovation? They have pronounced it a true success.

"It is wonderful that you can see from the [front] door out the back," Henderson said. "You come in, and it is dark in the hall, and then it rises to the light."

Holland said a lot of the credit for the design goes to Jabco and Henderson themselves.

"Good architecture comes from good clients," she said, "and they are designers, too."

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