Innermost house is 12 by 12 foot square; from floor to ridge beam it’s 12 feet high. Diana & Michael Lorence lived at Innermost House for seven years.
The home has no electricity and hot water and heat come only from a fire in the fireplace. Lighting at night came from beeswax candles. There is however running water in the kitchen. A gravity-fed line runs from a cistern on the hill above the house.
In many ways Diana & Michael lived the way people did before people had harnessed electricity. They cooked in a dutch oven over a fire. They ate the freshest and most fragile food first and used food preservation methods to help food last the best. They took sponge bathes instead of showers or filling large tubs with hot water.
The firewood they cut and collected by hand came from a nearby orchard from trees marked for removal. So instead of being lost in the farmer’s burn pile in a single burn, they used the wood slowly over the course of months.
Michael designed the home and with the help of a handyman built the home themselves. In the photos the home looks nothing like what you’d expect a tiny 12 by 12 foot cabin with 18th century tech to look like – or maybe you would like Michael.
I think the big takeaway for all of us is that happiness and comfort don’t have to be found through electric lighting, hot water on demand, and flush toilets. I suspect the gizmos we surround ourself with these days may in fact may be more distractions to really living, but it might be tough to know for sure unless one tried to live so simply for some time.
Can you imagine living this way? To learn more about this home, the people who lived there, and the reasons why visit the Innermost House website. Below is a video interview with Diana from faircompanies.
. You can find his very popular off-grid website at