How it feels to live in tree trunk

JAN 28, 2020 AT 02:40 PM

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Tree house

This is what the house looks like from the outside

Huge tree trunks often have large cavities that can be easily transformed into a room. In Africa, there is a bar inside a baobab tree. In France, there is a chapel inside a hollowed-out oak tree. But an American man, Lenom Moore, came up with the idea to build a house inside the trunk of a huge sequoia tree. How did he manage to do it? Let's take a look at how he transformed the space in a tree trunk into an original and unique home.

The Story of an Amazing Home

Tree house interior

This is the treehouse interior

Lenom's idea was born when he visited the forest one day for a picnic and to gather some berries. When a strong storm kicked up, he urgently had to find shelter. He noticed a huge sequoia that had fallen years ago and the large cavity inside. After spending several hours sheltering in the cavity, he decided to use the trunk to build a house!

Sequoias, a species of redwood trees, are the largest trees in the world. The majority of them grow in the Pacific Northwest of the US. The tree used for building the house was 75 meters tall, 5 meters in diameter, and was nearly 1900 years old. Lenom managed to get a piece nearly 10 meters long because parts of the trunk had been previously removed from the forest.

How Did He Do It?

Room in a wooden house

It's still a little gloomy inside

One of the main features of the house is that the trunk is horizontally placed, providing a lot of interior room. The trunk is placed on a movable platform. Lenom wanted to travel around America with his unusual home, but the trunk size was too large so he never left California.

It took Lenom and a friend almost a year to build the house. They hewed the wood to form thin walls.

What Was the Result?

Beds in a wooden house

A bedroom for two

The house has a living room, kitchen, bedroom, dining room, and bathroom. There are no windows, but Lenom got approval for electricity in the house. It looks like a train carriage or airplane interior-narrow and long, with furniture arranged on both sides. Sometimes the treehouse travels around California, which people can visit for a small fee. There are even signs on the walls like "Don't sit on the couch!" or "Toilet is closed for guests!"

Are There Other Structures Like This?

Library in the tree

Beautiful library in an old stump

There are other similar structures like the treehouse. Sharalee Armitage Howard, an American living in Idaho, created a small and cozy library in a one-hundred-year-old tree stump. It's free to visit and anyone can use the library. It's a simple structure consisting of a small roof, stairs near the entrance, and shelves. A glass door provides visitors a view of the delightful interior. Visitors can take a book or leave one to share with others. Howard has worked in the local library for years and decided to create something useful and unusual for local residents.