Discovering the perfect home isn't always about finding everything you want in one place. Sometimes, it's about finding the one place where you can make a home everything you want.

Eric and Carol Leeson were expecting a child in 1999, so they began searching for a house that would suit their expanding family - as well as Eric's parents, Dolores and Tom Leeson, who would be purchasing the house with them.

They agreed on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom hillside rancher in West Chester that had the potential to suit everyone's needs. Its unique location, on two wooded acres on a private drive, appealed to the whole family. Still, renovations were needed to adapt it to everyone's style of living.

"The house was good, but the location was great," says Eric Leeson, a landscape architect and the one who would be designing those adaptations. "I knew I can always change the house, but I can't change the location."

Effecting change required thinking about how everyone lived before, and how they would live together.

Tom and Dolores Leeson were downsizing from a four-bedroom, three-story Colonial and didn't want to sacrifice the feeling of spaciousness. Carol and Eric Leeson loved their new modern home and its large windows and abundance of natural light.

Maximizing efficiency and space in the 3,000-square-foot home became a prevailing theme. By removing a crawlspace above the kitchen and vaulting the ceiling, skylights could be added. The wall dividing the dining room and kitchen also was removed, allowing for natural light and a more open floor plan.

"The form was important, but the function was very important," Carol says. "We love efficient use of space, so we labored on that."

A narrow deck that stretched across the back of the house and blocked sunlight from reaching the lower level (what might ordinarily be basement space) was removed. A screened porch with sliding doors was added off the kitchen.

To take the house out of 1980s' cookie-cutter style, shoe molding and luan doors in the upper level were replaced with richer materials, like oak and pine. In one remodeled bathroom, Carol even matched a favorite necklace, selecting labradorite, an iridescent mineral, for the countertops.

The two-level floor plan allowed the Leesons to unofficially divide the house into upstairs and downstairs living areas, offering both families privacy while sharing space, costs, and chores.

The upper floor, where the whole family gathers for meals and relaxation, includes the living room, dining area and kitchen, along with Eric and Carol's master suite and their daughter's bedroom.

Below, where Dolores and Tom reside, an attached two-car garage was converted to a bedroom suite, augmenting an existing living room and master suite. Unfinished areas were converted for more efficient storage and a kitchenette for Dolores to use on the three nights a week that she doesn't cook for the whole crowd.

Separate upstairs and downstairs entrances mean everyone can come and go as they please without fear of disturbing the others.

"If they're hosting a party with their friends, we have our little space down here," Dolores says. "They don't have to do anything special, and we don't have to do anything special to accommodate that."

"They'll have people over, and we won't even know it until we look outside and see all the cars in the driveway," Tom adds.

With Dolores and Tom as live-in grandparents, Carol was able to return to work part time after her daughter was born. Splitting the mortgage and not having full-time child care kept costs down, allowing for flexibility.

"I didn't want to go back to work full time, and I would have had to in our previous house," Carol says. "The other reward of our arrangement is my daughter's close relationship with her grandparents."

Carol returned to full-time work last year - she is director of business development at Devereux. The elder Leesons are still able to help out by watching their granddaughter or volunteering at softball games.

The Leesons had looked at properties all over the region when purchasing their house, but none matched the amenities, the price and the potential of this one. A clan of gardeners, they were drawn to the landscaping possibilities.

Eric maintains a huge garden in the back that contains mostly native species and potted tropical plants, including a huge banana tree.

Dolores, who had a Williamsburg-style garden in her last home, was persuaded to grow more local varieties out front.

Tom planted dozens of bushes and hacked trails in the surrounding woods. The house is in a development, but with lots of privacy.

"We have two acres, but we're surrounded by open space, so visually, you feel like you have seven or eight acres," Eric says.

"The outside of this house is what really sold it for me," Dolores says. "Except for a couple of months in the real bitter cold, I'm outdoors a lot and so is my husband. We're what you call active seniors."

Indoors, the Leesons are equally in harmony with nature with two seasonal views. When the trees are in bloom, the shade cools the home and gives it a cozy feeling. When the leaves fall, their forest view expands to a large, open field.

For an active family of nature lovers, nothing could be better.

"I love this place every time of the year," Carol says. "I love it when you can see far, and I love it when you feel like you're in a little tree house."