68 beachLIFE LOCAL PROFILE CLAUDE BAUDIN
“ It ’ s all about disconnecting from The Man ,”
says Claude Baudin
Claude Baudin is referring to both his Bayfront Santa Rosa Beach home and his life in general , which encompasses BMW , Triumph , and six Moto Guzzi motorcycles . One of the motorcycles is electric and another runs on biodiesel . A biodiesel processing system , which he developed himself , is on-site .
As for his house : There isn ’ t another one like it anywhere . It sits atop pilings so that it catches the breeze coming off the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay . It ’ s also situated within the shade of the surrounding live oaks . Walking about , there ’ s the sense of living in the trees , the serenity of being high above it all . The windows can be open and closed by a series of lines running through blocks and secured by cleats — like the running rigging on a sailboat .
There is no air conditioning and never has been . The home is built of cypress harvested where they once stood along the shore of the Bay , and milled into rough planks four inches deep and 20 inches wide . Bungs conceal the heads of lag bolts that hold the structure together . The floors have been sanded and finished with tongue oil .
“ I didn ’ t know what I wanted to do when I started out ,” Claude says . “ I just knew that I wanted to build my own house .”
And so he did . The project began in 1982 with the purchase of a 1-1 / 3-acre Bayfront parcel of land in Santa Rosa Beach for $ 50,000 . There would be no blueprints . The first step was building a mock-up of the home using balsa dowels . Then , with a dimensional vision of the structure he had in mind , construction began . The roof went up first , followed by the floors .
“ There was a lot of staring involved ,” he says about the building process itself . “ You just lay one board down , and then you see the next .”
The cypress planks were ( and are ) incredibly heavy , requiring the occasional help of friends to set in place . But it was mostly just Claude , hoisting the planks with a block and tackle system . “ Youth ,” he says , “ overcomes anything .”
Two years later , the home was mostly complete , making him the first resident of the surrounding neighborhood . Once fully moved in , he started on the outbuildings to accommodate an expansive shop , an exquisite 1960 panel truck , and a growing collection of Italian and German motorcycles . An outdoor shower with a privacy screen of vines was also plumbed .