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The Problem The home you bought seemed perfect for your situation a few years ago. Or, it was bigger than you honestly needed so you just moved in and quickly went on with life. Then things changed, ever so slightly over time or in some bigger ways. Maybe you're home more now, or working remotely from home. Or you found yourself offering space to your adult daughter who is going back to school, and you never planned on that but here it is. And it's just not working anymore. What to Do? Clearly, you have do something! And I get that the most logical next step might seem obvious: you need more space!! It's too cramped. It's creating stress and chaos. You can't find things. You don't have enough private space. So, you make the decision to add on 500 square feet to create an office and another bedroom. But I've got a reality check for you... there's a lot more to solving this challenge than just adding more space. This post makes the case for remodeling.
It doesn't tell you how to decide - how to work out what your space is actually failing at, which is almost never square footage. I wrote that piece recently: the four questions I use with clients, in order, plus what happened when I finally used them on my own house. 👉 Read it here: 67 Square Feet  ~ post continues, click Read More ~
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If you've got a garden that's more bare than planted, or an expansive back yard that's at the bottom of an impossibly steep hillside with no access, you already know that feeling of the gap between your dream landscape and the weedy reality you are looking at. Maybe your older home feels awkward and dated and you've got a Pinterest board with picture perfect ideas that make you feel frustrated because there's no clear path to bringing that vision home. Keep hold of that dream or that vision. But know that making small edits and efforts along the way, maybe a little bit every day, counts as progress. Give it time. And each step feeds the creativity and energy for the next thing. Take those impromptu ideas and let the dream evolve. Enjoy the process and just start.  From this week's dispatch in Letters from The Whiskey Porch - a weekly letter on home, garden, and smaller, simpler, more beautiful living, written from a 1924 Craftsman bungalow in Prescott, Arizona. [Read the full letter →] 50 Fridays over on Substack.  What if downsizing isn’t really about less? What if it’s about creating more room for what matters most - time, beauty, ease, and a home that supports the life you’re actually living? In this week’s Design Dispatches letter, I’m sharing the final piece in my smaller living series: The Gift of Downsizing A reflection on right-sized homes, thoughtful design, and the surprising pleasures of choosing enough.  👉🏼 Read the full letter on Substack → That’s where I share ongoing reflections on home, garden, and thoughtful design rooted in real life and lived experience. With contentment & possibility, At Letters from The Whiskey Porch, over on substack, The Spring Porch Invitation is now open. April 15th - 24th, 2026. Become a member or upgrade now Receive a handmade studio thank-you gift  I just opened a small and very special invitation for readers who would like to step a little further onto the porch. For a short time, readers who join Letters from The Whiskey Porch as annual Porch Companions or Studio Stewards receive a small handmade thank-you gift from my studio at Juniper Hill Cottage in Prescott, Arizona. The Spring Porch Invitation is open through April 24. You'll find all the details on membership benefits and access at the link below. 👇🏼 Join the conversation and be inspired. With contentment & possibility, The Goldilocks question: what's just right for real homes? For years, the conversation around home size has been framed as a choice between extremes: oversized houses with unused rooms, or tiny homes that promise freedom through radical reduction. But for many people, neither option truly supports the way life unfolds. A right-sized home isn’t defined by square footage alone. It’s shaped by proportion, flow, and livability - by how well spaces support daily routines, changing needs, and long-term comfort. Designing small-not-tiny often means focusing on flexibility, thoughtful circulation, and rooms that can adapt as life expands and contracts.  Rather than asking how much we can strip away or accumulate, the more useful question is how our homes support the lives unfolding inside them. When scale, intention, and design work together, a smaller home can feel generous, calm, and deeply functional. I explore this idea more fully in my latest Design Dispatches letter Small, Not Tiny, where I reflect on what “just right” looks like in real homes- and why the missing middle matters. 👉 Read the full letter on Substack → That’s where I share ongoing reflections on home, garden, and thoughtful design rooted in real life and lived experience. With contentment & possibility, For years, the conversation around home size has been framed as a choice between two extremes: bigger houses with unused rooms, or tiny homes that promise freedom through radical reduction. But for many people, neither option truly fits the way life unfolds. A right-sized home isn’t about square footage alone. It’s about proportion, livability, and how well a space supports daily routines, changing needs, and long-term comfort. Designing smaller - without going to extremes - often means focusing on flow, flexibility, and rooms that work harder without feeling overworked.  I explore this idea more fully in my latest letter, Smaller, Simpler, More Beautiful, where I reflect on what it means to craft homes that quietly support real life. You can read the full piece on Substack, where I share weekly reflections on home, garden, and living a smaller, simpler, more beautiful life. With contentment & possibility,  This essay was originally written in 2021, when the tiny house movement was gaining widespread attention. While the core ideas still hold true, I’ve since written an updated and more reflective version of this piece - exploring small, but not tiny living through the lens of design, lifestyle, and lived experience. 👉 You can read the new letter here on Substack: Smaller, Simpler, More Beautiful I hope you'll join the conversation there. The American Dream has virtually always been: more + bigger = better. The fad and trend that's predominated the last many decades has been to stretch yourself to the limit in order to acquire the most impressive home possible. This home would prove that you were successful, and obviously make you comfortable and happy. Over many decades, that's turned into crazy-big homes which required large incomes to buy and maintain, along with massive consumption of resources to build and live in.  Is it a palace or a large, single family American home? Is this the American Dream? Now-a-days, it's not surprising that the new trend is all about the teeniest tiniest home possible. The pendulum tends to swing, doesn't it? Like most things in life, we tend to learn from experience and then often run the other way. Now, the smaller, more minimal and more mobile a home, the better.
Tiny is fine if that's what you really need or want, but it's pretty extreme and unsustainable by most standards. A more manageable and still meaningful downsize might mean reclaiming older, smaller homes and shifting to a less consumerism mentality, while still participating in a mainstream community and lifestyle. ~ blog post continued below ~
This post was originally written as a simple look at holiday décor here at Juniper Hill Cottage, back in 2021. Over time, my thinking about the Christmas season — and how we live inside it — has deepened.
If the Christmas season sometimes feels louder, busier, or more exhausting than you’d like, you’re not alone. I’ve written a new letter reflecting on why I’ve struggled with the season at times — and how small, intentional choices at home have helped me make peace with it. → Read An Artful Cottage at Christmastime on Substack I know the day after Thanksgiving is supposed to be all about making lists of things to give or buy. And spending all day in line to get the best deals. But here at The Whiskey Porch we do the exact opposite. Enjoying each other with gratitude for what we have and adding artful décor to our little home. And spending time outdoors which is often gorgeous in these parts! Here's a little peek at how we do things, Nordic style, here at Juniper Hill Cottage...  ~ post continues, click Read More ~ A little note: This original post from 2019 has been one of the most-read articles on my site, and I’m still so grateful for that.
If you’d like to settle in for an even more personal take on why porches pull us in, I’ve started a new series on Substack, where I dive deeper into the history, design, and heartfelt philosophy of porch living. You can read Part I here: Why Are Porches So Alluring? Remembering How I First Fell in Love. I've always been enamored with the Craftsman Bungalow - but didn't even realize it at first. I remember spending time in the Pasadena California area house hunting for a possible job move decades ago and just being hypnotically drawn to the older bungalows that abound there. I didn't know then, but it was a truly American architectural style that was also common all over San Francisco where I'd lived most of my life. Looking back, the feature that always caught my eye first and drew me in, was the front porch.  Craftsman bungalow front porch And now, owning and living in a 1924 craftsman bungalow in northern Arizona, I find myself excited beyond words that we opened up the front porch which had been enclosed somewhere in the 60's or 70's. We started that whole renovation project in summer 2019, and it wasn't really finished until summer 2021, but it was so worthwhile. (You can find out more about that project here: Juniper Hill Cottage.) It feels glorious to be in that space now without the constraint of the walls and windows. Friends and neighbors come into the space and just marvel at how delicious it is. We try to imagine why anyone would have chosen to enclose this fabulous space. Every chance we get, which is pretty much daily, we end the day on this exceptional front porch. Never get tired of it or the view.
So I thought I'd write a piece to explore the idea. ~ post continues below ~ (now on Letters from The Whiskey Porch) If you love thoughtful design, authentic craftsmanship, and homes that live beautifully in small footprints — you’ll enjoy this one. I’ve shared a new Design Dispatch featuring my favorite books and publications for anyone who’s drawn to bungalow style, timeless architecture, and soulful living. These are the design titles that have truly earned their place on my shelves here in our 1924 Craftsman cottage in Prescott, Arizona. Whether you’re dreaming up your next renovation or simply seeking inspiration for a simpler, smaller home with soul — this curated reading list is a wonderful place to start. 👉🏼 Read the full story and join the conversation on Substack: Bookshelf: Design Classics for the Small Home & Bungalow Life → With contentment and possibility, ~Miriam (Blog post originally published in 2019. Now updated and expanded for 2025!)
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AuthorHey there. I'm Miriam ~ and I've been doing this my whole life. It's my passion. 
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