Beauty and the Bungalow

Hidden from the alley by a bamboo screen, the slim section of yard beside the garage is a tranquil retreat reached via a plank bridge over a pond, complete with a fountain.

A brick walkway to the garage winds past mounds of perennials, shrubs, and a birch tree.

The garage could pass for a flower-bedecked guest cottage.

A sizable hydrangea dominates one garden bed; annuals provide between-season accents.

Jacobson and Crowley have given the house what it wants, both out front and in back, where outdoor dining is a warm-weather pleasure.

The ferny leaves and upright stalks of a pond plant play off the bulbous shape of a clay vessel.

"A bungalow wants to be surrounded by a garden," says Jacobson.

A sitting room has Ikea floor lamps, an antique printer's cabinet used as a coffee table, and a Crate & Barrel loveseat. The pillows are from Italy; the painting is by a favorite artist, Chicagoan Gary Weidner.