View Full Version : Innermost house
Square Peg
1-19-12, 2:02pm
I just ran into a video about this house and its residents and I thought folks here would appreciate it. I love simple living, but so many people who write about it just rub me the wrong way. This woman is positively lovely though.
http://innermosthouse.com/
http://www.faircompanies.com/videos/view/thoreauvian-simple-living-unelectrified-timeless-tiny-home/
That is simply beautiful, Square Peg. Watching the video, I was transported back in time, a time when life was almost stopped, silent, more relaxed, and present with all things homey, healthy, and natural. Thank you so kindly for posting.
Very interesting. The older I get the more I absolutely love being alone with dh in the sanctity of our home where it is peaceful and quiet.
How beautiful. I've enjoyed reading little snippets throughout the day.
So... no electricity at all? No refrigeration? Do they live there year round?
Impressive.
Stunning photography as well.
That really is something. The video is great -- there were some really great quotes in there about beauty being subtraction: There was one by Emerson and one by St. Exupery.
Very inspiring--I'm bookmarking it.
I printed the exterior picture and wrote "I want to live and die here".
Thanks for the link, I am still perusing it.
Sherry
What a lovely soul. Just listening to her talk made me feel a little more peaceful. She has a beautiful home, too. Thanks Square Peg.
Wow. That's all I can say ...
Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
Square Peg
1-21-12, 12:14am
I am glad people have enjoyed it. I do believe they live there year round. That is the impression I got.
Innermost House reached out and found me a couple of weeks ago, and it feels like home to me. The Lorences do live there year round; they make one trip a week into town to buy food - veggies, fruit, cheese, bread - and to get their laundry done by a wash-and-fold place. They collect firewood from the prunings of the orchards and vineyards near them, and build what they call Indian fires from those - i.e. small and efficient! They have a Facebook page, and a website, maintained by friends who find their experience to be important.
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id=307066622657439&format=rss20
http://www.innermosthouse.com/#/innermost-house
Innermost House reached out and found me a couple of weeks ago, and it feels like home to me. The Lorences do live there year round; they make one trip a week into town to buy food - veggies, fruit, cheese, bread - and to get their laundry done by a wash-and-fold place. They collect firewood from the prunings of the orchards and vineyards near them, and build what they call Indian fires from those - i.e. small and efficient! They have a Facebook page, and a website, maintained by friends who find their experience to be important.
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id=307066622657439&format=rss20
http://www.innermosthouse.com/#/innermost-house
Do they live in Napa Valley?
As much as I love tiny houses, I could not live in this house. I did not see a bathroom, the kitchen would be too small for me to prepare anything, and there's no place to stretch out (aka a couch). I would feel so claustrophobic to just have the 2 chairs to stare at my spouse. Didn't see a place to eat either. Loved the photography and the lighting of this house though, nice fireplace too.
As much as I love tiny houses, I could not live in this house. I did not see a bathroom, the kitchen would be too small for me to prepare anything, and there's no place to stretch out (aka a couch). I would feel so claustrophobic to just have the 2 chairs to stare at my spouse. Didn't see a place to eat either. Loved the photography and the lighting of this house though, nice fireplace too.
I second Herbgeek's comments. I also feel that houses like this are not practical for people who want to stay in them for a long time, as they don't allow for physical changes due to aging. That ladder up into the loft, for example. Heck, my knees would probably complain about it.
Put that bedroom on the ground floor with the futon on a simple raised platform and that would make it much more practical for a wider range of people. I'd also want somewhere to eat, a larger kitchen with ways to cook and refrigerate food.
And this harkens back to Mrs M's "I love white" thread. How do they keep that upholstery clean right next to a fireplace (even if their fires are small) and without having electricity to run a vacuum? I'm way too practical... :D
For the Lorences, Innermost House is the culmination of a decades-long search for Place and Conversation, both of which are loaded terms - not negatively! For them, life is about Being, not Doing. They want time and peace for contemplation, and they have refined their lives to give them exactly that. They buy their food, they take their laundry to town and check it into a wash-and-fold launderette. They do minimal cooking; a big stew for the evening meal made with veggies, a handful of grain, and a handful of legumes; sometimes they eat eggs baked in the ashes; they eat home made muesli for breakfast, while lunch is usually an enormous salad with bread and cheese and fruit. I think that they mostly eat on the porch. They've been living in Innermost House for six years, and find it the epitome because of luxury because they live the life they love. They take sponge baths using water heated on the fire, so they have no need for a large bathroom. They own very few things, but each thing is excellent of its kind and it is beautiful; they own two forks, for example, which are antique hammered silver forks. The house is obviously very clean! They pride themselves on making small, very efficient fires, which use orchard and vineyard prunings.
I love the details of the house; the superb craftsmanship throughout is itself a thing of beauty. Every time I look at the shelf supports, for instance, I get a fresh jolt of pleasure. Although the house is so small, it took nearly a year to build, because of their unflinching determination to have perfection. The walls are plastered with a gypsum mix made to a very old recipe, which takes forever to dry, and they put on, if I'm remembering this correctly three coats, and used a specific trowelling technique on the last coat when it was half-dry to get a very smooth but undulating finish. I love the way the light falls onto the walls.
The Lorences are attached not directly to Innermost House but to their sense of Place; they have moved many times in the last 30-odd years, and I get the impression that as the climb to the loft gets harder and more perilous, they would simply move again.
Here's Diana's interview with House Beautiful: http://www.innermosthouse.com/#/in-dianas-words-i/house-beautiful
Certainly the life is not for everyone; I am myself of a deeply contemplative nature, but I need a lot more books - mine take up around 100 shelf feet. I like to cook and bake, I'd want a camp oven to use at the fire - it can be cleaned and folded for storage between uses. I do a lot of contemplation in the bath; my apartment doesn't have a tub, so I got a big plastic tub which I put into the shower cubicle, and I soak happily in that. My life is a series of figure-8s which keep returning to the call of few possessions but all of them lovely. I don't think I'd shed a single tear if I never did laundry again, but I do like to grow some food and have some flowers. I don't like climbing into lofts, and indeed I would not want an upstairs at all!
Perhaps the greatest value of Innermost House is its challenge: what is life, what is beauty, who am I?
happystuff
1-24-12, 7:23am
I've seen photos of the outside of this house on the internet. So nice to see the inside. Love the video! Very nice. Thanks for posting.
Aqua Blue
1-24-12, 10:17am
As much as I love tiny houses, I could not live in this house. I did not see a bathroom, the kitchen would be too small for me to prepare anything, and there's no place to stretch out (aka a couch). I would feel so claustrophobic to just have the 2 chairs to stare at my spouse. Didn't see a place to eat either. Loved the photography and the lighting of this house though, nice fireplace too.
Ditto here. I have way to many people over, way too often. I like to cook way to much. I would want a bathroom, a place to stretch, a place to eat.....:laff: My hips and hand arthritis would make it hard to go up and down to bed. But, I agree the photography is beautiful. It seems very restful. And it works for them. >8)
There is a little cottage in the book, Inlaws, Outlaws and Granny flats that I could make work. It was made out of logs felled on the property. It has a bathroom, a sleeping alcove, a refrigerator and stove. There are lots of things that I like about that house. :D
I was so happy to see the video and really appreciate the simplicity of the living space. I've been visiting the web-site (but not Facebook) and so thanks to Suzanne for clarifying the up-dates are created by friends, as I have been looking in on the quotations of the day and wondered if the Lorences were actually making the selections and doing the postings.
I feel the lifestyle this couple has chosen is a very good example of conscious living. Its always so good for me to hear of others in the world living in this way, a way I am striving for but still caught up in "shoulds" and fears.
I guess I must be crazy but, I was sure that I saw a toilet and taps for a small tub. I guess I actually dreamed it! I was that impressed, lol!
Realistically, the house wouldn't work for many people, that is why is was designed by and for them only. But, it is so like a dream, it really does pull one in...........sigh.............
ETA: I did some further reading and found out that they do have a bathroom. I must have seen a blip of it while searching around that and extended sites.
Hi Sissy, I think it was on the Youtube video that I saw the bathroom; they do have a conventional flush toilet, and I too noted taps on the wall - but no showerhead or tub; I think it was on Kent Griswold's site that I read about the sponge baths. Apparently the Lorences just sit on a little stool and wash from a bowl of hot water.
Speaking of small tubs, I see that Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses has found a small tub, 30 or 32" by 22".
Beautiful. It has a monastic kind of feel to it. I love their intentionality.
I would love to have a little house like that as a retreat space. Dad and I have talked about that once in a while, getting what we call a "hermitage" for family members and friends to go when they need a place for contemplation. Something small, simple and away from it all for one or maybe two people.
Most of the time I love the hustle and bustle of my large family life and community, but there are times that silence and contemplation are good for the soul.
Stella, I would love to have a small sanctuary away from the main house, maybe down the hill a bit, under the trees. Being a sanctuary, it wouldn't have to be even a 12 x 12. And it is completely doable. I so need a place away from the constant TV and ringing phone, and (God love 'em) kids. One needs total silence to meditate/contemplate/read. At least I can't accomplish it with chaos around.
I am trying to find out just exactly what it is that they do. Motivational speaking? Life coaching? I can't really find anything with substance. Just pictures and little teasers, and testimonies from people that have listened to them. Does anyone have a web site or any more info on them? They kinda seem like ethereal beings.
ETA: I am now reading the other link that was posted and finding out more and more. Thanks!
I am trying to find out just exactly what it is that they do. Motivational speaking? Life coaching? I can't really find anything with substance. Just pictures and little teasers, and testimonies from people that have listened to them. Does anyone have a web site or any more info on them? They kinda seem like ethereal beings.[/QUOTE]
If you google Diana Lorence all kinds of webpages and articles come up. What I gleaned from them so far is that their little house is built on the property of one of the husband's clients. They use the client's agricultural water, have built a cistern to store water, it runs to their place via gravity. Michael counsels or has conversations with actors, CEOs and the like. Diana speaks on the pleasures of simple living. She does not charge for her talks, from what I could figure out. Her talks are given mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I am trying to find out just exactly what it is that they do. Motivational speaking? Life coaching? I can't really find anything with substance. Just pictures and little teasers, and testimonies from people that have listened to them. Does anyone have a web site or any more info on them? They kinda seem like ethereal beings.
If you google Diana Lorence all kinds of webpages and articles come up. What I gleaned from them so far is that their little house is built on the property of one of the husband's clients. They use the client's agricultural water, have built a cistern to store water, it runs to their place via gravity. Michael counsels or has conversations with actors, CEOs and the like. Diana speaks on the pleasures of simple living. She does not charge for her talks, from what I could figure out. Her talks are given mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area.[/QUOTE]
Thanks Heidi
On the Innermost House webpage, there's a question about how the Lorences support themselves. Here's the gist of it:
"Some people might say they have paid a high price for their way of life--they have never owned a home. They live in "partnerships" with people who value their conversation so highly that they are happy to provide them with "a living" for it. Diana explains that such an arrangement is uncommon today, but once was perfectly normal. In traditional societies everyone recognized the value of supporting some people in relative independence from the money economy. They were the clergy. They weren't "paid," they were given "a living"--that is, a place to live they didn't pay for. People value Michael as a kind of independent clergyman who provides "spiritual direction" to people of all faiths from such a position. It's an important kind of barter that has its roots in the earliest societies.
But they have supported themselves as well through a combination of design and craft work. Michael has designed and created everything from rare book libraries to garden pavilions, and is consulted in all matters of culture. But to him the work that has stood at the center of it all has been men's custom tailoring. That sounded almost bizarre to me the first time Diana spoke of it. But Michael understands the craft of men's custom tailored clothes as among the last living vestiges of the old creative economy, the way of exchanging the goods of high culture that preceded our modern consumer way of life. He calls himself a tailor.
He works intimately with craftspeople who make things the old way. He does his business the old way. In a way it doesn't make any sense, but because he does his work as if money were not the point, he has slowly established relationships that have always allowed them to have enough money. Diana was talking about it in answer to a question once, and a woman in the audience--a successful professional designer--just stood up and said "This can't be real" and walked out (here's the essay--http://bit.ly/zaozM8). I have to kind of squint at it myself to see it, but I think that there will always be people who value anyone who values what lasts above what is profitable or in fashion. According to Diana, her husband hasn't looked in a magazine or a store for years.
Michael has always traveled some for work--I don't know how to generalize, but I don't think he spends much time away from home. They have worked all this out in an organic kind of way, not by planning it. They knew what they valued, and they just never let themselves get caught up in any other way. They're kind of like some high mountain pine tree that seems to have grown full standing on bare rock. You look at it and think, Now how on earth did that thing ever survive? And if you tried to plant it there it wouldn't survive. But a plant knows where the sun is and where the water is, and if it starts from a seed, sometimes it can grow there. "
happystuff
1-29-12, 7:58am
I find myself thinking alot about her little cooking pot and the fireplace "stand" she puts it on to cook. So cute - so simple!
happystuff, I was drawn to the simple cooking pot as well. I have simplified my eating so much and the idea of using minimal "stuff" to prepare my food is very appealing. Innermost House has really pulled me in!
When I moved onto my smallholding in South Africa, we had no electricity from either the grid or a generator. I used paraffin lamps for light - I think it's called kerosene here! - and soon found that I could put a tripod over a lamp and use the escaping heat for cooking. The elegance of this still appeals to me: light and heat both put to full use, along with great saving of money!
I have 'liked' Innermost House on Facebook, and there is an on-going conversation regarding the house and this way of living. It is at times quite deep, quite contemplative, enjoyable to read and reflect.
I just spent a wonderful hour watching that video and the other 'tiny house' videos on that site. So interesting, thank you for posting the info about it.
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