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trailrunnerbiker

a wonderful house ..and something more..

trailrunner
11 years ago

removed thread

This post was edited by trailrunner on Mon, Jan 6, 14 at 0:32

Comments (120)

  • EngineerChic
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Maybe they play at living like this on some days, and live more normally on others (with trips to a laundromat or bakery). I don't understand, if they aren't raising their own food then what do they DO all day? Sit in the chairs and look at eachother? Even the books wouldn't last long if they aren't working the land. But if they are growing crops then they must have space for implements and food storage (rakes, hoes, canned or dried goods).

    I agree that something doesn't add up or isn't being fully shared. Which is their prerogative, if they are honest with themselves and their "followers".

  • mitchdesj
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    they do have running water in the kitchen, I saw her prepare her pot of vegetables and add water to it from a tap.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    >they do have running water in the kitchen, I saw her prepare her pot of vegetables and add water to it from a tap.

    Yes, but both the blog and the video say they don't, which is why I'm guessing some kind of cistern. Yet another of the inconsistencies. She sure has a lot of water pressure for a cistern, though.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Something definitely fishy here...and clearly not what they're eating. Ok, if you're not growing vegetables then you have to be buying them from somewhere and you have to have some way of getting there...like a car. I dont see a horse or a barn or even a moped to get around, and its not like there is a grocery store nearby in the N Cal mtns....

  • rosesstink
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I want to know what Pal knows that we don't. Up thread: "Her husband is very talented."

  • trailrunner
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    removed thread

    This post was edited by trailrunner on Mon, Jan 6, 14 at 0:50

  • Elraes Miller
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Trail, you did find some interesting links. One explained that they were featured in House Beautiful. Hence the staged look and photography. I agree with most that they do not actually live there on a regular basis. It has to be a place where they counsel people. One of your links showed their visiting a Zen/Buddist program and spoke of the excitement of meeting all. Perhaps Richard Gere stays the night there.

  • CucumberSandwich
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    To the OP: how does a house send a "deep message"? What "deep message" do you get from it? The message I get from the house is this: "I'm tiny, I'm in the woods, and those who resided within me looked for too much meaning in a tiny house in the woods." Even the name is pretentious.

    I knew Mike Lorence before he preferred using his full name. He didn't come from wealth, but has a Middlewestern (Iowa) middle-class background nor was there anything "mysterious" about him. "Michael Anthony Lorence" had a very private nature, but his wheels were always turning. He was a nice, likable and charming guy and very good looking (dark hair, blue eyes, memorable body) with lofty ambitions and creative aspirations who wanted to write and "become one with nature" as cheaply as possible. I, too, am mystified as to why there aren't any photos of him to be found either at his wife's blog or by doing various searches, but I do remember that he was never comfortable being photographed and this quirk may have become more pronounced with time and age; I can't say with certainty.

    While I admire the workmanship and aesthetics of their tiny house and would have enjoyed visiting, I wouldn't want to live there. Perhaps they no longer reside there because they realized that there's only so much knee-to-knee conversation, contemplation, reading and reflecting one can do in a small candlelit room before the urge to run screaming from the place overtakes one. There's also such a thing as too much closeness. And sponge baths? I can't even imagine living anywhere, tiny house or not, without a shower or tub! (I hope they frequently changed the stool they utilized for sponge bathing or at least gave it a good over-cleaning after each use.)

    "Michael Anthony's" wife, Diana, is probably a nice enough person, and she's obviously intelligent and creative in her own right, but she does have a pretentious streak and some of her writing sounds too New Age-ish (even downright flaky) for my tastes, like someone who's trying too hard to give depth and meaning to everything. Sometimes, a twig is just a twig. Too often her words are just so much psychobabble. My impression is that there's more there than meets the eye, and not all is as it seems. And some of their "followers" sound like people who are looking for a messiah, the same type of minds that would eagerly and willingly join a cult. I say to these followers: It's just a tiny, unique house in the woods, people, and neither "Michael Anthony" nor Diana are messiah material. It's a lifestyle choice, and I'm sure, like every couple, they've had their issues. (Also, messiahs don't take sponge baths.) Don't attach so much importance to the wrong things or look for life's answers from a couple simply because they choose to live differently and sparsely. Other than being more well-read than the average person (then again, who wouldn't be well-versed if one had very few if any responsibilities and plenty of spare time for reading?) "Michael Anthony" and Diana really aren't that different from the rest of us mortals. Some people always seem to need someone to follow, and that's just sad.

    This post was edited by CucumberSandwich on Sat, Jan 4, 14 at 15:28

  • maire_cate
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This just keeps getting better. My thanks to CucumberSandwich for signing up today and posting so that this thread could be resurrected - especially since somehow I missed it the first time around. What an enjoyable 30 minutes this has provided and it serves to remind me of so many posters who no longer frequent this site.

    Maire

  • patty_cakes
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    At the moment the words to Brad Paisley's song 'Online' is playing in my head! It's a sweet house, but the inhabitants, or maybe just the wife, is dillusionable.

  • patty_cakes
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dilusionable is 'urban dictionary' usage, and not my intent. Delusional is the 'proper' usage, I think. ;)

  • TxMarti
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've seen that house before and thought it was really cute. A lot of ideas that could be incorporated into a larger home.

    When I saw it the first time I thought it was more a retreat than a permanent home, but I could have it confused with another small home too.

    But if they did have this as their full time home, I can see where they would eat and breathe each other's words. When you sit knee to knee with another person, you wouldn't have much choice, especially if they had garlic for lunch. ;)

  • indygo
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, this is wonderfully mysterious and strange. It seems the man is a tailor but also holds mysterious conversations. Maybe they're magical suits? Superpower suits? Fun way to spend a half hour, I agree. If you look through the link, you'll see images of the tiny house. And CumcumberSandwich, reveal more! I love the idea of a serial novel narrative through a decorating thread.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Michael Anthony Lorence

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    "I knew Mike Lorence before he preferred using his full name. He didn't come from wealth, but has a Middlewestern (Iowa) middle-class background nor was there anything "mysterious" about him."

    WHERE in Iowa?? I don't recall running into him and I'm sure I would remember anyone who appeared to be a crack pot. Lady Diana has her Martha Stewart accent nearly perfected.

    I hope neither of them sleep walk. I couldn't even share that space with myself without having a breakdown. So many things are just wrong with those people/that house. Why are they punishing themselves. No running water? Cooking over a fire? Hello!! Next small house should be a cave dug into the side of a hill and a couple of big leaves for clothes. I want to know where they take a bath. Front porch? I've lived without electricity and running water but not for long.

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I found lots of hits for him on google. From his web site.

    The truth is missing in a man's life today. It was missing to me, and I sought it
    everywhere in everything��'in people, in places, in objects and ideas. Now it is
    my privilege to serve as a discreet designer, furnisher and guide to men who find
    themselves seeking, as I sought, a way to individual completeness, and a world
    where experience, knowledge, wisdom and maturity are the measure of the man.


    Michael Lorence

    Here is a link that might be useful: Michael Lorence

  • littlebug5
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, I agree that this is just curiouser and curiouser. My appetite is whetted more by CucumberSandwich, who seems to lend some credibility to these people by stating that he/she actually knows them.

    I was born and raised in Iowa, too, and I'm searching for a memory that I perhaps ran across such a person as Michael. Hey, it's possible!

    This also brings to mind a group of people who live and teach near Fairfield, Iowa, which is the home of the Maharishi University of Management. Fairfield is not that far from where I live now, and conversations I've heard about that University are sometimes conducted in hushed and somber tones, as if we shouldn't speak of it aloud. Sometimes us Midwesterners are very cautious of those who appear to be different from us. Maharishis in Iowa, of all places, you say? Yes, there are.

    I have a friend (who was very strange in her own right - extremely wealthy but lived in a straw bale house without running water) who recently divorced and moved to the Fairfield area. She was EXTREMELY intelligent, well-read and well-traveled. She always seemed to be reaching for something more, some stimulation that was over my head, so to speak.

    Is Michael a (former) resident of Fairfield? A product of the University? One of its promoters? Inquiring minds want to know . ... . .

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    curiouser and curiouser
    Does she lecture? Does he? Is he a tailor? Making 52 suits a year? Counseling world leaders? His profession is conversationalist? There was a woman at work who never shut up. Little did I know........nor did she, apparently.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Diana

  • kswl2
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My KSWL BS-o-meter is in the red zone.

  • citywoman2012
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have just read this thread with interest (saying mildly)
    and my response is..........what everyone said above!
    I think they are just two intelligent very strange people and like kswl........I have a bs-o-meter and it woke up the dog and kitty cat.
    Have enjoyed the posts.

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ah, yes. Fairfield. that would explain it. Is there a membership there or a list of people who've taught classes? anything?

    How old is this guy? I found one at ancestry.com but he was born abt. 1927 in Penn. 1940 Penn. census lists John, Eva both 48. then Joseph, Andy, John, George, Mary, Michael, and Anna.

  • luckygal
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks to those who posted more links which attempt to explain this couple.

    "Otherworldly", "deeper dimension of existence", "conversation closer to a 'pure' university life", " we individually build fifty-two bespoken suits of clothes and jackets a year, suiting the man in the true style", "a tailor out of time". The more I read the more confused I feel.

    Is 'tailor' a metaphor for what Michael does? Is it similar to calling Jesus a "fisher of men"? Not that I am equating the 2 personalities. My natural inclination to cautious paranoia prevents me from placing Michael on such a pedestal. Have always avoided accepting exclusively any guru in my life.

    Both Michael and Diana seem to be very charismatic people. However, as one who lives very much in the real world I find their lifestyle difficult to comprehend. Perhaps I might understand if I went to live in the forest in a tiny house to meditate for years. Sounds interesting, but really how would that work? So many things most of us face daily in real life that are not addressed on any of the sites.

  • kswl2
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My experience with charismatic, otherworldly people has taught me two things:

    1. Make sure you still have your watch and jewelry before they exit stage right, and

    2. If you listen very carefully you can hear a small child's voice saying, "But he's not wearing any clothes......"

  • CucumberSandwich
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    You're correct, littlebug5, Fairfield it is. And before dropping out -- Michael considered "just living life the most important education" -- he was a product of the University there. As far as his birthdate, it's Sept. 27, 1956. In my view, he was someone who was perpetually unsettled and at odds with himself, especially at that time. We were lovers before his marriage (I must admit to being rather shallow at that young age because I enjoyed and was more impressed by his lithe, toned, Adonis-like body than his unusual mind) and eventually we went our separate ways. I wanted to get my Masters and he wanted to live by the sea and write poetry all day. In other words, I was too rooted in the real world for his tastes, and he couldn't understand why I didn't want the same things. We remained friends, as much as former lovers can remain friends, and periodically corresponded for several years after parting company. Sometimes, at his request, I sent money; not a fortune, but enough for certain essentials. Mike was the type of person it was difficult to refuse, and from what I've read it sounds like he still is. He also had a talent for seeking out those with wealth -- money's much more important to him than those who admire and follow his "simplistic, bare-essentials lifestyle" will ever know. Eventually I lost track of him because he moved so often -- and apparently still does. It sounds like Michael is still a person who's continually re-inventing himself and more than likely always will.

    During the years he and his wife resided at "Innermost House" ("Little House in the Woods" would have been less pretentious; I'm inclined to think his wife named it) I had to fight the urge to contact Mike because I very much wanted to visit him and see their tiny house, but because of our history, albeit long ago, I finally concluded that it might be uncomfortable for him and his wife. From what I had read, Diana sounded brittle and off-center to me, so I resisted getting in touch with him again. Maybe I should have contacted him when I had the chance because now they've moved on to some unknown "college town in the East to seek out more conversation." (translation?) I'd like to get in touch with Michael now for no other reason than to see if he retained his good looks with time and age. Shallow again, I know, but nobody can have "deep conversations" with another every waking moment without getting tired and annoyed. One occasionally needs visual stimulation as well, and Michael was very good at providing it...

    P.S. To those following this thread: please forgive my silly username, but I had a craving for a cucumber sandwich when I first signed up and posted a comment here, a craving I've since satisfied, so there you go!

    This post was edited by CucumberSandwich on Wed, Jan 8, 14 at 13:50

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    You can find pictures of Lorence conversing in his little house...from his web site.

    I recalled this thread and was surprised to see it pop up again, so I went back to look at the house, and there is something very elegant and inviting and attractive in the simplicity of the design and atmosphere it creates. There are plenty of tiny houses out there, but I've not seen any that provide this kind of warmth and coziness.

    Re running water, I believe in the video Diana says no "hot" running water...she does have and use the tap in the kitchen sink.

    They may be off the main stream for sure, but sometimes that's what it takes to create this level of uniqueness. I certainly wouldn't want to live there, but for maybe an overnight, sure.

    Here's Steinmetz's cabin...he was an electrical engineering genius who worked with Edison and created much of how the A/C electrical grid still works today. He too was happy with a minimalist lifestyle.

    Here is a link that might be useful: A look inside

  • CucumberSandwich
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Self-appointed gurus and cult leaders have also been described as "charismatic," Annie, and there's a difference between leading a minimalist lifestyle and retreating from the world (think Unibomber). No one has disputed the "uniqueness" of their house, but Diana Lorence -- and possibly Mike -- is another matter. Don't confuse "uniqueness" with strangeness. Regardless of the facade they present, there's something not quite right there; I'm sure of it.

    And what Diana Lorence has written at her blog is that they boiled water in their fireplace for hot water. You also mention their tiny house's "coziness and warmth." In what sense? Isn't stating that a tiny house is cozy being redundant? And I don't think Diana would agree with you about its "warmth" since she's also stated that "in winter it can get down to 40 degrees in the house and the only warmth that can be felt is if we're right next to the fireplace." What fun! You mean their love and "uniqueness" didn't keep them warm on such chilly days and evenings?

    You mention Mike (oops, Michael) having a website, but you don't state its address. I have done a number of searches trying to discover if he has a website/blog and couldn't find anything, so where is it, please?

    And how kind you were in your word usage when you wrote that Michael and Diana "may be off the mainstream." (I suppose that's one way of putting it.) When Mike wrote to me ages ago asking me to live with him at a nudist colony near Big Sur, instead of refusing him I guess I should have said to myself, "oh that wacky Mike! He's so 'off the mainstream,' so why not?!" I'm no prude, but I prefer to be nude with those I at least know. A large group of naked strangers doesn't fill me with joy and uniqueness, so I must not be "off the mainstream" enough.

    It's a tiny house, Annie; keep it in perspective. They no longer reside at their tiny house, either (and Diana Lorence has been secretive and cryptic as to why they moved) so evidently it wasn't unique enough for them. My guess would be that it was either a matter of finances or Mike felt the need -- his "compulsion" he always called it -- to move on once again. He never was able to settle in one place for long no matter how unique and ideal the dwelling. And if, according to Diana, they've moved "over twenty times" since they've been married, it doesn't sound like he'll ever take root, tiny house or not.

    This post was edited by CucumberSandwich on Wed, Jan 8, 14 at 11:50

  • patricianat
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    He may have left Diana and gone into Saynyasa. I think they are a pair of phonies craving attention and her blog is a means of monetary gain and that is, perhaps, all they have since there is most likely a paucity of men who want to be tailored in Michael's not-so-unique way.

  • Bunny
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I couldn't finish the video because of my gagging. I'm sorry I didn't read all the posts here, but where the hell do they do the laundry?

    I live in No. California. There are a lot of preciously pretentious people in these parts. OMG, so annoying.

    Edited: BTW, I think the house is as cute as a button. A retreat, a studio, workshop, etc.

    This post was edited by linelle on Wed, Jan 8, 14 at 12:22

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yes, there is definitely something off here, cucumber, including the fact that my post was not about you. I don't know and don't really care what your history is with this person. I was posting about the house.

    I did post the link to the website...you will find it if you click on it.

    When I was talking about warmth, I was not talking about physical temperature but a feeling one gets from the finishes, materials and decor. When I posted about coziness, it is not just because it is small. After all, a homeless person's cardboard box is small, but I wouldn't call it warm or cozy.

    My point was simply that it is a unique small space that has more elegance than most. There are many tiny homes out there, but most with less ambiance. The lifestyle is unusual for us today, but hardly for people of 150 years ago. And that sometimes unique people offer different and interesting perspectives or unusual creations that are strange to their contemporaries, but add value to in ways that may not be immediately apparent. Sometimes, their strange ways are just simply that, strange, but that's a far cry from cult status.

  • Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 4b
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    linelle- Somewhere, maybe on one of the related web sites she says she washes their underwear in the sink and they brush their other clothes of which they don't have many. I think she said most of their clothing was wool, summer and winter. I know what I smell like after a couple of winter days in previously worn clothes and no shower. Summer.........? His clothes were black and I think white, hers brown and white.

    I expect someday to watch their story on 20/20 or Dateline. Unique isn't the first word that comes to my mind.

  • Bunny
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    lov_mkitchen, thanks for the update. Unique indeed. Her dress reminded me a bit of Whistler's Mother. It gets hot in N. Calif. in the summer. I like it hot, but can't remember ever being able to wear wool in the summertime here.

  • maire_cate
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    CucumberSandwich - pardon my questioning - but I'm curious as to how you happened to find this thread and what compelled you to resurrect a post that has been dormant for over 2 years?

    I'm beginning to feel like I've stumbled headfirst into the proverbial rabbit hole.

  • CucumberSandwich
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    No, you weren't just posting about the house, Annie. Read your original comments again. You also offered comments about Michael and his website as well as several comments pertaining to the house's former inhabitants in which you gave your impressions and opinions about them and how others view them. This is hardly writing "just about the house" as you now conveniently claim.

    Since I was familiar with Michael -- I doubt anyone has ever really "known" him, including his wife -- this is the reason why many of my comments pertain to him and not just the house, plus others here have asked me to give further insights into him and validate certain information about him, and I was glad to oblige and fill in a few blanks. At any rate, to understand art, one first needs to understand the artist. (Since this adage is as thick and pretentious as some of your comments, I'm sure you'll appreciate it that much more.)

    And as far as finding the link you posted to his website, I must be overlooking it because I still can't see where you supposedly included it, and believe me, I'd like to. Maybe your pretentiousness has blinded me, and this is the reason the link to his website continues to elude my eyesight.

    As for your comments about the "warmth" of their tiny house, of course I knew your intended context, so please don't insult my intelligence. Ambiance -- "finishes, materials and decor" -- doesn't keep you warm, literally and figuratively, when it's 40 degrees indoors. Also, I wonder how appealing and "cozy" you'd find such an environment after spending days and evenings sitting knee-to-knee with another contemplating, reflecting, reading by candlelight and silently gazing off after you've tired of steadily discussing the meaning of life and the secrets of the universe. And how much warmth and coziness do you think a tiny house would convey if you opened your door one morning and found a bobcat on your porch looking hungrily at you while licking his chops? Join the real world, Annie. Innermost House may project "warmth and coziness," but try living in such an environment for awhile and then let's hear your comments and views. And AGAIN, no one has disputed the "uniqueness" of the house itself nor its aesthetic appeal, but the former inhabitants you've evidently put on such an artistic pedestal are another matter. So, you really should lower your defenses, light a candle, and reflect on that. (I know of a little house in the woods near Benicia, California where you could do that for days and evenings on end with wood rats for friends and singing bluebirds and butterflies that follow you everywhere. And instead of doing your own laundry, you could even have it sent out for others to do while you're lighting candles and contemplating what it all means -- talk about roughing it!)

    You also wrote, "the lifestyle is unusual for us today, but hardly for people of 150 years ago." But it's not 1864, Annie, it's 2014, and unlike Diana and Michael Lorence, those in 1864 didn't have websites/blogs, cell phones, cars or septic systems nor did they take their laundry to a "fluff 'n fold" service and shop at a supermarket once a week, all of which Diana Lorence has written about in her blog. So, these "unique" people weren't really living like people did 150 years ago, were they, Annie? I guess they weren't the purists you'd like to think and believe they were.

    Being a nudist is a different lifestyle too, but it doesn't mean that those who adhere to nudism are somehow unique, special and worthy of being followed. (Well, I guess some nudists are unique and special in their own way -- and some should be followed -- but that's another subject.)

    As far as cult status, consult your dictionary and know Diana and Michael Lorence first and read some of the disturbing cult-like comments their "followers" have written about them before commenting once again on things you know nothing about. Be it houses or people, don't be so easily swayed by aesthetics and outward appearances, and above all else, please don't try so hard.

    You also stated, "there are many tiny homes out there, but most with less ambiance." Have you seen them all in order to make such a claim? Do you know this for a fact?
    I, for one, would enjoy hearing about all those tiny houses you've visited.

    This post was edited by CucumberSandwich on Wed, Jan 8, 14 at 17:22

  • awm03
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    AnnieD, sounds to me like someone is two cucumbers short of a sandwich. What say we let this thread drop?

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm with maire-cate. I'd love to know the answers to her questions, cucumber. Why did you seek this out and revive this thread?

    I'm still not getting this animosity you express towards these people...and I'm certainly not getting all these presumptions you are making about me and my thoughts about these people and the tone you have taken in your response. There clearly is some anger here, even perhaps contempt...I'm not sure, but you might want to explore why you are feeling so strongly about this, and whether these people and their little house are worth all this negative energy that you are expending on them.

    I suspect it's your strong emotions, not my "pretentiousness" that is blinding you to my post of today at 8:41 which at the very bottom has a hot link "A look inside". If you click it, will take you to lorence's website.

    I never suggested they were purists or even that they were trying to prove anything. I'm perfectly aware of what year it is and know how uncomfortable I would be in a house that was only 40 degrees or had not running hot water. I also said I wouldn't want to live there. So what? I can appreciate the house for what it is.

    I have not, nor need I see "all" tiny homes to opine about them...and you know that...don't be ridiculous. Of the ones I've seen, this is the most attractive to me. You clearly disagree. Fine. So be it.

  • peegee
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I, too, find the little cabin both elegant and cozy, and admit a certain curiosity about it's former occupants. But I would hope that if I decided to spend time in a little cabin in the woods for whatever my reasons, people would not disparage me from taking advantage of modern amenities unless living there were for the express purpose of experiencing life in early days. (like in a PBS special, for example) That said, it does concern me that conversation has shifted from one of curiosity to mean spiritedness. Additionally, anyone who may have an axe to grind about someone could state a personal connection and spew forth words hurtful and harming. IMHO there is too much negativity out there everywhere right now for a civil society and is it becoming apparently more and more socially acceptable....I appreciate so much in this decorating forum the overall kindness, generosity and wisdom among the posters, and a general feeling of helpfulness, comradery, guidance and compassion. Lets not let this thread just die, as it can be resurrected again, but lets pull together and show our strength of character here, and get back on a less smarmy track.

  • littlebug5
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, doggone it! I wanted to go back and re-read the original posts and view the little house again, but the posts and links have been edited out!

    How come? I think I hear the Twilight Zone theme song . . . .

  • kswl2
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Peegee, just so you know--- I have no personal axe to grind and have no knowledge of these people IRL. They've put themselves out there and we as individuals are entitled to question, comment, opine, and even jeer when and as it seems appropriate. I'm not trying to answer you rudely, but I do not want to feel constrained to say something nice or say nothing at all on an Internet forum on a subject about which there is not much nice---IMO-- to say.

  • patricianat
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What caught my attention right off was that she looked well groomed, clothing starched and ironed and she was notably well coiffed in her cute and stylish haircut (imagining she has manual scissors and they cut her hair by candlelight before engaging in counseling, hair possibly used in some sort of new age cloth weaving), her face made up to a"tee" and yet she has no electricity so we can assume she uses bat guano for makeup preparation). She has no hot water and she "brushes" her clothes off. Once when she put clothing outside to air overnight, part of which was devoured by animals of the night, may have been one of the goats which pulls the shaft-driven generator that provides power for her internet. I suggest they are growing what they are smoking and they assume all readers and consumers of their tall "tales" are doing the same. Let the tailoring (and bashing) begin.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Little bug, just google innermost house and you'll find pics of the place.

  • olderandwiser
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Annie D., I'm with you on this. Despite the jokes about--not to mention the criticisms of--the Lorences, the house they built has a certain serenity in its order and plainness. I wouldn't want to live without a kitchen table, heat, etc., but Innermost House's photos and Diana's writings make me think more sharply about how I would like to live. Some of the comments seem to show that a prophet is without honor in his own land!

    Someone asked if the fireplace has ashes in it, and it does. The Lorences originally had a shower in their house and heated the water with propane. That didn't prove practical without an electric fan to ventilate the shower, so they removed it. They rented an office in town and that is where their computer was used. Diana didn't grow food, but would buy it at the local farmers' market. They lived in the tiny house for 7 years, but would make an annual visit to Colonial Williamsburg. They got a car when Diana started accepting speaking engagements. When not at the house, they ate what they were offered.

    Diana mentions in the blog that Innermost House is well insulated; they dressed warm and stayed near the fire. The house has a toilet and septic system and gravity fed cold water that comes from a pump in the kitchen--and Diana did operate the pump. There is a drain in the bathroom floor for the water from sponge baths. She also mentions on a tinyhouse blog that they used a "fluff and fold" laundry for their regular wash. There are two 4' x 6' lean-to sheds on each side of the house for storage, as well as a closet in the loft with poles for hanging and some drawers on the bottom--see
    http://tinyhouseblog.com/timber-frame/dianas-innermost-house/

    When Diana answers the many questions at the above blog, she is more practical and quite gracious in her responses. Most readers who asked questions were enthusiastic about the Lorences' tiny house.

    Diana writes about the land surrounding the house and explains: "Those aren’t pebbles on the ground, but oak leaves. Our first year here I raked every leaf from the site, only to learn that they provide nourishment for the trees as they decompose, and that a thick covering on the ground serves as mulch against weeds." Someone raised this issue of "no leaves in the forest" in the 2012 posts on gardenweb.

    There is a desk or table in the study, where one photo shows Diana sitting and writing. Diana also says that when people speak of the "mysterious" way the place looked--with nothing out of place--there's no mystery, as she kept it like that.

    Diana reveals at www.innermosthouse.com that they thought they would not leave the house, which was built on a friend's property. But the friend married and sold the place. Then the new owners invited the Lorences back, and they returned. However, the place was not as quiet with the new owners in residence, so the Lorences decided to leave Innermost House.

    There are some confusing and incomplete details. For example, a tailor who uses the most expensive materials and makes 52 handmade suits a year (http://www.michaelanthonylorence.com/#/who-we-are) seems to be an artist of his craft and would probably cater to the very wealthy. Still, on his own time and in his personal space he could well choose a "simple" life.

    The Lorences may be rare birds, but they had the discipline and skill to design and build this beautiful little house, which I recently was happy to discover existed.

    This post was edited by olderandwiser on Sat, Feb 15, 14 at 12:06

  • olderandwiser
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Correction: There are two 4' X 6' lean-to storage sheds, one on the east and one on the west side of the house. Some photos, including one showing the house exterior and one of the sheds, are at http://lucascountyan.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-innermost-house.html

  • zen4d
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    There's a "Truman Show" interactive feel to this post. I like this site for it's design and decorating inspiration, especially from those posters who actually know what they are talking about when it comes to decorating and design. The space is a serene and cozy physical space, although it lacks the feeling of a "home." I do think the woods and creams, the books bound in all the same paper support that clean, uniform look, and in conjunction with the candles, fireplace, brick, appear to provide the cozy feeling discussed above. Realistically, though, It seems too cramped and not functional - (coats over toilet, bathing in kitchen, brushing teeth wherever...) - not even for a B&B overnight stay.

    This post was edited by zen4d on Fri, Feb 14, 14 at 11:06

  • signalfire
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I joined this forum just to be able to post this; I'm usually a bit of a puzzle solver (of conspiracy theories, not jigsaws) and this house presents a fine puzzle indeed. The house itself is gorgeous but obviously staged, staged, staged; as someone above pointed out, it's like a Vermeer painting from the perfectly arranged vegetables to the candlelit glow. But that said, no this house isn't lived in full time by Michael and Diana. His web site refutes that completely. After reading the numerous testimonials on what a fine figure of a man Michael is (all written oddly like Diana writes, but perhaps the mind-space is contagious, or the customers are under some kind of hypnotic trance after being in his presence) we find that Michael produces 52 bespoke suits a year for rich men who want only the best of the best... not 51 suits, or 53, but one a week. I do some sewing myself and that seems unlikely unless what he's really doing is offering a choice of cashmere or vicuna, natural tan or dove gray, m'lord? and some real tailors, trained in the art, gentlemen from Turkey or Italy do the actual construction...; for a fee (but only after a suitable personal referral from one of their prior customers, apparently), you can have Conversations With Michael weekly or monthly; and for a somewhat larger (unspecified) fee, you can have him create for you a room just like Innermost House; complete with the books and other accouterments, (no plastic anywhere, but plenty of antiques) that would reflect well on your innermost mindset... be well aware that at every step of the way, Michael will make sure you realize that you are a refined individual, worthy of such connections and praise... because you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, and this is, well, not spectacularly self-indulgent therapy but something else... designed to help your friends and employees realize how truly unique you are, even if someone else has to set the stage, provide the phraseology and augment the setting..

    I wonder if Michael (if he even exists, there are plenty of descriptions of the man and no pictures whatsoever) spent enough time at Esalen to realize, rich marks are far more lucrative than a 'real' job. For a price, he'll meet with you in San Francisco, Beverly Hills or New York. One wonders how much time he can spend at Innermost House if he's traveling the continent having these exquisite conversations with the powerbrokers of the world whilst providing them with vicuna suits, one a week.

    I see a house where many of the books are covered with white paper; it makes them all look lovely and anonymous and matching, but any true reader would be appalled by such. I want to see those book's spines and titles when I look at my bookcase, to remember fondly the reading of them and have them available for the grabbing if I should get a hankering to read them again... not try to remember which one was "A Walk In The Woods" and which was 'The Joy Diet'... again, someone from House Beautiful came in and did that, or someone with a massive amount of OCD...

    There's other things; Diana's tiny perfect handwriting shown in the video; her blog that reads like Thoreau but somehow manages to say nothing, really; the way the fireplace is perfectly clean gray with not a single black smudge even though it's supposedly in use all day long, ditto the front of the fireplace which should have just a tad bit of smoke staining on it, as every house I ever saw with a real used fireplace did...; the renunciation of electricity but writing a blog, having a website extolling your virtues with the utmost of pretense and ego, the white unused cushions of the two single chairs in the house (even though every evening is a long conversation, presumably whilst homemade meals are eaten with contemplation on laps, out of the single bowls available...), right next to that sooty and ever-so-slightly untidy fire...

    The reason this appeals to us is obvious; it's gorgeous. There's not a single piece of plastic in evidence anywhere save a potscrubber near the kitchen faucet... the beeswax candles are always new and never melted down; there's not a single cobweb or speck of dust anywhere.. no modern paperbacks, only leatherbound gilt-edged antique volumes (none of them contain the word 'Luddite' except the newer dictionary, apparently even with all the reading Diana does, the word hadn't been invented in them yet).

    Don't you see? It's beautiful, it's a blast from the idealized past (just like Williamsburg, where they met?), it's a con job and a sales pitch. One wonders if they had to move on to greener greenback pastures, now that Diana's advertising and the video made them a bit too famous... and maybe people started asking questions. One wonders where they find exactly 52 rich men a year to engage in these wonderful conversations, order a new suit and perhaps a special room of their own, and how meetings in Beverly Hills, San Francisco and New York jive with 'living in this house'...

    Hats off to them, though. they've elevated flattery and 'con' way past the most Freudian of psychotherapists to something somehow Elizabethan and Shakespearian in its grandiosity. Well played, Diana and Michael Anthony Lorence. Well played.

  • signalfire
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh, and one other thing: There are numerous quotes about Michael from a piece GQ reportedly did on him. Can't find the article on their website at all, though.

  • detroit_burb
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    this is a funny thread. this house is more like 12x12=144 square feet, not 12 square feet. a bed would not fit in 12 square feet.

    it seems they do not live in this house, maybe they vacationed here.

    they live on ocean front property in virginia in a 6000+ square foot mansion.

    i read thru his website which is selling 52 suits per year. it is entirely possible that he does tailoring for rich men, charging thousands for each suit, making a good income. perhaps the wife is the marketing genius behind this venture.

  • imsmilng
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Where is the link to this house?

  • signalfire
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Just google 'innermost house' and you'll come up with loads of info and videos

  • Circus Peanut
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Alternate title for the blog: "Personality Disorders at Home"

  • signalfire
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    That may be one way of looking at it. I find it fascinating that the testimonials all read exactly like Diana's style of writing, hyperbolic and overly effusive. A search for the innermost house website led me to the domain name info, and a rented office in Aptos.

    Anyone seen anything from Diana and Michael since they moved to the East Coast in search of 'more conversations'? Do we have another House Beautiful living arrangement (unlived-in) to look forward to? Stay tuned...

    This post was edited by signalfire on Sat, Apr 26, 14 at 11:06

  • detroit_burb
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am not sure that this classifies as personality disorder, more marketing ploy.

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