The Transitional
A lakehouse that began as an exploration and arrived at something no one expected — a home designed from the inside out, where every room was shaped around how the owners wanted to live before the exterior was ever drawn. Traditional in its bones, contemporary in its details, and unlike anything else on the lake.
Wine, Light, and a Home
That Would Stay Forever
The owners were relocating to the Lake Texoma area — he an international businessman who would work from home across multiple time zones, she from Oklahoma, both ready to put down roots in a place their family would gather for generations. They did not arrive with a finished vision. They arrived with passions, priorities, and a willingness to explore.
Wine was at the center of everything. They wanted storage in the garage the size of the garage itself, and they wanted a glass-cornered wine room visible from the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen — not tucked into a basement but woven into the daily circulation of the home. They also wanted volume — soaring ceilings, natural light from every direction, and a connection to the lake visible from the main living areas. And they wanted three separate outdoor spaces across two levels.
One requirement shaped every construction decision that followed. This home would be placed in a living trust and left to their children. It would never be sold. It was, from the beginning, a legacy project — and it needed to be built with the permanence that commitment demanded.
An Exploration That Found
Its Architecture
This was not a home that was designed once and built. It was a home that was discovered through iteration — multiple floor plans, evolving ideas, conversations that shifted direction as the owners refined what they wanted. At one point, the concept was a three-story house with an observation deck overlooking the lake. The final result is a two-story home with a complex roofline, layered volumes, and an exterior unlike anything else in the region.
Roberth’s approach was to work from the inside out. He locked the floor plan first — once the living spaces, the wine room, the bedrooms, and the home office were arranged around how the owners would spend their days, he committed to the layout. Then he shaped the exterior to express what was happening inside. Every bump, every gable, every volume change on the facade corresponds to a specific room or spatial relationship within.
Five or six exterior materials — brick, stucco, stone, metal, and a three-dimensional textured tile — are woven together across the facade. The mix could have become chaotic. Instead, it produces a textural richness that draws everyone to this home: every surface has depth, every angle catches light differently.
This is what makes it transitional. The massing is traditional — gabled forms, a grounded proportionality, a sense of home. But the details are contemporary: clean metal awnings, dark window frames, a restrained color palette in warm neutrals. The home occupies the space between two styles and belongs fully to neither. It is its own thing.
Volume, Light, and
a Palette That Flows
The living room captures everything the owners wanted. The ceiling rises through a full double height, crossed by exposed timber beams, with a glass-railed loft visible above — the upper-level game room, separated by glass walls so that people upstairs and down can see each other without combining their noise. Windows run floor to ceiling on two sides, filling the room with natural light that shifts through the day. The effect is a space that feels both expansive and warm — open to the sky and the trees, but grounded by the wood tones, the textured furnishings, and the soft palette that runs through the home.
Heather and the wife worked closely together on a palette of subtle contrast — warm neutrals that shift from room to room without ever breaking. The countertop selection, which Roberth calls his favorite in any home the team has built, anchors the kitchen. The cabinetry, the backsplash, the leather seating, and the metal accents all participate in a composition that feels unified but never monotonous. The fireplace became Heather’s favorite detail: a large-format tile with a slight texture that catches light differently depending on where you stand.
And at the center of the ground floor, visible from the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen — the glass-cornered wine room. It is not hidden. It is not utilitarian. It is a piece of architecture in its own right, positioned so that the home’s circulation passes through and around it. The owners’ passion is on display not as a collection but as a spatial experience — glass walls revealing the bottles and the light within.
Built from a Distance
The owners were relocating from out of state during the design and construction of this home. The husband’s international travel schedule made regular on-site visits impractical. Every design decision, every material selection, every construction milestone was coordinated with clients who could not be present the way a local owner might be.
The team’s process was built for exactly this. The 3D model allowed the owners to walk through their home from anywhere. Heather guided material selections through structured meetings and shared references. CompanyCam documentation gave them real-time visibility into progress. And the milestone checkpoints kept the project on schedule without requiring their physical presence. The timing of their relocation was critical — and the home was ready when they arrived.
Built to Stay in the Family
Despite the floor-to-ceiling glass, the soaring volumes, and the complex roofline, this home’s utility costs are half what the owners paid in their previous house. The thermally broken wall system, the closed-envelope construction, and the high-performance HVAC deliver consistent comfort around the clock — critical for a home that is occupied twenty-four hours a day by owners who work from home across international time zones.
The home is in a living trust. It will not be sold. It will be passed to the children as a gathering place — a home built with the permanence that commitment requires. Every material, every system, every structural decision was made with the understanding that this home would need to perform not for a decade but for generations.
In Their Own Words
Project Details
Location · Rock Creek, Lake Texoma, Texas
Type · Primary lakehouse — designed for full-time living and long-term legacy
Architectural Style · Transitional — traditional massing with contemporary materials and details
Key Features · Glass-cornered wine room as spatial centerpiece, double-height living room with glass-railed loft, floor-to-ceiling windows, five-plus exterior material palette, three patios across two levels, dedicated home office with darkening capability, complex multi-gable roofline
Architect · Roberth Jordan
Interior Design · Heather Shields
Built by · Ceci Bates Custom Homes