Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

Red candelabra lights circa 1967 glow in the windows of the Lambert’s plantation style home. Before the walls were constructed and painted, the couple had a scripture writing party. “We had about 60 people come over and write Bible scriptures on the walls, floors, everywhere,” Bileta said. “Some still come over and say ‘I wrote in this closet’ or ‘I wrote here.’ It was really neat.”

By Diane S. Morales, Caller-Times

December 24, 2006

Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

The setting sun casts a golden brilliance in the foyer against the parquet wood floors and woodwork. “When I was selecting the floors, the lady told me parquet was out of style,” Bileta said. “I told her that’s okay, the house I’m building is outdated.”

PHOTO GALLERY

Rifling through a stack of papers from her dad Billy Preslar, Bileta Lambert found a wrinkled Christmas list. Written in capital letters, the faded penciled missive read:

‘Dear Santa Claus, I want dancing doll and a baby boo, and a slingci. Love Bileta Preslar.’

“I was trying to spell Slinky,” Bileta said, laughing.

Oleta Preslar, Bileta’s late mom, dated the letter Dec. 20, 1965. Bileta was 4 years old when she wrote the wish list.

Bileta framed the letter and displays it on an antique table in her and husband Justin Lambert’s family room. Family antiques and Christmas nostalgia make up the couple’s plantation style home where time stands still, but memories old and new flow.

Home of their own

This year marks the Lambert’s third Christmas in the home they designed themselves. The two-story white exterior with black shutters, wide covered porch and white columns on Galatia Drive is a Southern belle in Country Creek.

Bileta’s love for antiques and Justin’s childhood memories of growing up in a turn of the century home inspired them to build something different.

“We looked through magazines and found a house we both liked,” Bileta said. “Then Justin took me on a surprise Audubon walk in St. Francisville, La., and we saw beautiful plantation homes. That’s when we knew we had the right idea.”

The Lamberts, who own Just Beautiful Landscapes and Toad-Ally Awesome Ponds, applied their creative vision to select paint colors, lay parquet floors and do ceramic tile work in the four-bedroom three full-bath and two half-bath home. Justin also made a fireplace mantel and installed all of the trim.

Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

Light bounces off silverware hanging on the Christmas tree in the formal dining room.

Vintage flavor

Walking into the foyer, a nearly 22-foot high ceiling space is hardly intimidating with a stout Christmas tree Bileta decorated with family vintage ornaments, a 1915 Ithica grandfather clock and a wood banister dressed with real cedar garland, pine cones and burgundy colored bows.

A newel post salvaged from a church near Gonzales was the couple’s treasured find to anchor the banister.

“Can you imagine the hands that passed it?” Bileta said, rubbing the grooves and knicks on the post.

To the left of the foyer, a pink parlor complete with her parent’s velvet French provincial furniture, a pink chandelier she found at Deluxe Home Furnishings and an ornately carved wood fireplace mantel from Houston decorates the space.

Bileta cranked the Victrola in the corner and Bing Crosby crooned “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” while embers crackled in the fireplace.

Matching porcelain figure lamps with Victorian style lampshades mix with a grandmother clock and a gold-framed 18th century style art piece titled “Chess Game.”

“My mother always used to say ‘you can never have it too gaudy,’” Bileta said laughing.

Parlor’s charm

Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

Cedar garland entwined with white lights decorates the eyebrow balcony overlooking the family room.

Across the parlor, the Lambert’s yellow dining room walls enrich the antique dark wood in the space. A candelabra chandelier adorned with holly hanging above Bileta’s grandmother’s antique lace tablecloth.

An antique buffet displays Bileta’s mother glass punchbowl, while the opposite end a curio cabinet glows green with Vaseline glass.

“It has uranium so it glows under a black light,” Bileta said. “I don’t collect anymore because the cabinet is full, but I used to take a black light with me when I shopped for it.”

For the dining room Christmas tree, Bileta looped gold ribbon on her parents’ silver flatware to hang as ornaments.

Antiquity flows in the modern kitchen with old household product packages from the 1940s. Bileta displays her mom’s collection of Folger’s, Faultless Starch, Ritz Crackers boxes with greenery, faux fruit and ceramic containers on top of ash wood cabinets. Bileta stained all of the woodwork in the house.

Through the kitchen or foyer opens the family room where a 22-foot ceiling holds a roomful of family mementos in a sage walled scene.

Christmas fruit

The nearly 12-foot Christmas tree is decorated with frosted fruit, crosses and angels. Bileta was inspired by their street name Galatia and a Galatians Scripture verse, which mentions the fruit of the Spirit, for the fruitful tree décor.

The room’s permanent eye-popper though is the gray stone fireplace draped with cedar garland.

“We wanted a really rustic fireplace so we picked the gray stone,” Bileta said. “Justin wanted a big firebox so he made the mantel.”

Bileta is quick to say they are blessed to have their dream home. For Christmas, they’ll gather with their daughters, parents and other family members for a traditional feast of Mexican food and create new memories to cherish.

Contact Diane S. Morales at 886-3758 or moralesd@caller.