Thoreauvian simple living: unelectrified, timeless tiny home

Seven years ago Diana and Michael Lorence moved to a 120-foot-square home without electricity in the coastal mountains of Northern California.

They're not back-to-the-land types- they're not growing their own food, nor raising animals-, but, like Thoreau, they were looking for a place where they could get away from the noise of society and focus on their inner lives.

For nearly 30 years they have lived in tiny houses, often in guest homes, though their current abode is the smallest and most fitting their needs. It was designed by Michael based on their experiences living in nearly 20 tiny homes across the country before finally settling here.
 
They don't have electricity nor any other type of alternative energy (i.e. solar power). They don't have a refrigerator so they eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts. 

There's also no oven, but Diana says she doesn't bake anyway and she cooks their meals with their one cast iron pot over the fire. The fire is also their source of hot water, heat, and light (in addition to candles).

The Lorences are a private couple, but recently they have begun to speak out more about their lives in hopes of showing others that options such as theirs exist.

Until now, the couple has turned down requests appear on video, not wanting to be categorized as simply another couple choosing to live in a tiny space. So I was pleasantly surprised when Diana and Michael agreed to let me visit their home with my camera.

[samboescondido]

"I am perfectly happy with the entire world living exactly as it wishes, but I would live my life the way I wish."

[darlenegriffith]

Consider this is how the majority of people lived throughout history. I think what we call progress now has become a rat race to accumulate material things, and in the process we have lost a part of our souls.

[Loveisfreedom]

I come back to this video again and again, I am so fascinated by the simplicity, beauty, esthetic, inner life and peace these people live. So very inspiring to me...
🙏

[frankcarter]

The older I get, the more simple I want life to be. Possessions are less meaningful now.

[ScottTurnerformeindustrious]

I think I have watched this at least 30 times over the years. Love this one!

[Obrak-Abrik-gu]

I never get bored with this video. Whenever I need to relax and be alone .. I just watch this vid ... the way the narrator and the owner of the house spoke is really make me calm down

[corner]

She seems so calm and at peace with herself without all the modern trappings of life.

[TTimeConscious]

Many summer cottages in Finland do not have utilities. Many Finns spend their summers this way. It's really a marvelous experience. 😊❤️👏

[gloriahanes]

I remember as a child visiting my great grandparents home in sault ste marie, Michigan after my grandmother inherited the home. It was exactly as they had left it with an eight burner wood burning stove, the hand water pump over the white enamel sink, the small dark room off the kitchen with the chamber pot on the floor, the line of kerosene lamps on the wall in the living room, and all the doilies on the back and arm of the chairs and sofa.The rooms were peaceful and serene and the silence without a television was inviting with only books in a small bookcase to entertain. I felt an inner peace as if I was in a sanctuary or a church.

[EnGee]

Well.. when I first started watching I this I couldn't help thinking "they're crazy". As I continued to watch, riveted, I started contrasting my life to theirs, started to feel the weight of my "things" upon me, and to recall the yearnings of my youth and how I had loved Thoreau and Emerson. By the end of the video I was thinking "maybe I'm crazy".

[JohnKramer]

Sometimes I wonder if all the technology we use is causing us to lose our way. It seems the more we embrace technology the less rational and stable we become. I think the world has gone crazy, and to live in a way that doesn't participate in that would be very peaceful.

[jackstrubbe]

In the apparent rustic simplicity and fabricated gentleness, frosted over with a soft californicated gushed voice, I can't help but find delight in one of her soliloquy-formatted schpiels about simplistic diet being interrupted (truth!) by a Cambell's Soup commercial, no less than Cream of Mushroom. Thank you, utube. Sublime.

[DivineWisdom-rsbw]

Watching this was very special. I love the way this woman thinks. She lives in a mindful way...very peaceful. This is the perfect way to
simple yet luxurious. Thank you for sharing this beautiful place.

[mruosny]

I regularly visited an old uncle who lived in a small house deep in French Pyrenees mountain village of Tardets. He had no fridge no tv. He had running water and electricity though. He also had an old Labrador, Shatoor.

His house had a name. It literally translates from basques as the “one with a view”. As a matter of fact that’s all it had. He opens the wide window early every morning and there is was a nice steady green slope with grazing cows on the horizon. All cows had bells and for the rest of the day this was the sound track of life. So beautiful and memorable.

I envied this life style and still consider it brave and honorable. Yet one day I heard he died in the woods as he was hunting with his dog. He broke his leg and tried to go back to his house yet was too late to stop the bleeding. 3 days later they found him with Shatoor next to him.

I still envy this life style and am thankful and grateful for him giving me this opportunity to see the “other” life but it came with a price in the end.

[mejustme]

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing else to add but, when there is nothing left to take away" ... How beautiful! 💖

[landomilknhoney]

This was moving poetry.
What a wise woman.
I have lived off grid for nearly 5 years now.
There is nothing so awe-inspiring than sound of silence.
I bid thee well.

[wndrwmna]

I think about all the things they don't have to deal with. Crappy neighbors, sitting in traffic, gas prices, genetically modified foods that are killing us, reality shows, the news, cell phone Bill's, etc. I truly admire her peaceful and content lifestyle.

[emmyway]

Sometimes when I come back to this video the comments just amaze me. This must be the most documented small house on the planet in magazines and universities. She lived there SEVEN YEARS FULL TIME - NOT performance art, just cultured people. NOT unlived in, just NEAT AND CLEAN (like every house I knew when I was a girl still was) NOT pretentious books just real books really used by real educated people. NOT shopping all the time - food dropped off ONCE A WEEK FROM LOCAL FARMERS. Honestly the way people talk you'd think nobody ever survived without modern tech or that nothing good can be real. Maybe because it's just SO REAL in a world of totally fake junk we don't know what real looks like anymore?

[ruth]

This seems like heaven to me. I often feel overwhelmed with society. This life seems so incredibly peaceful. Living as you wish not a bunch of stuff cluttering your life and mind.

[yassirchediak]

I am a lucky man to live in a wooden house in the middle of a beautiful tropical forest in Brazil. I have a waterfall in the yard, birds, wild fruits and lots of nature. My son is intimate with the jungle. All of this and I am still close to the largest city in South America.