The Recycled Justice Center That I Call Home

After I wrote about the Wal-Mart store that Randall County converted into a justice center in The Wal-Mart Courthouse, some of my readers asked about the general store that I call home. Since I've been here, part of my home has also served as a Justice of the Peace office and the city's police station.

I acquired the 5,500 square foot building in the 90's as when I sold my interests in Horizon Manufacturing, a waterbed manufacturing firm. One of the buyers did not have enough money but offered the Shallowater building as partial payment. The building was originally built in 1916 as a small general store. Over the years, the previous owners expanded the building including adding a second story that became the local Masonic Lodge for this small community and offices on the north side that were rented as government office space.

My Place From Space

(The odd Shaped building in center)

See your place from space

Upstairs Balcony

Elevator

Downstairs Bath

By the time I took the building in trade it had last been used by a manufacturing facility that produced brooms, mops and eventually furniture for the waterbed industry. Building my own home with my own hands had been a lifelong goal. Selling Horizon Manufacturing provided both the building and the time I needed.

I remodeled the place without contractors but with the help of family and friends who frequently contributed to my efforts, I was able to finish in a little less than three years. When I began my conversion, the north one thousand square feet of the building was rented as the Justice of the Peace office and had been for several years. When the JP's office moved to the Lubbock County Courthouse this section of my home became the City of Shallowater Police Department. Today, I am renovating the old police station into a guest apartment for visiting friends and family.

The center section (between the old police station and my home) is my home workshop. Originally, I had reserved a thousand square feet for this area but in 1999 I expanded the living room to include a large stone fireplace and pushed inward about 200 square feet into the shop area. There's still plenty of room in the workshop and I continue to "grow" my home with little additions. The latest is a built in terrarium off the living room. My next goal is to build most if not all of the furniture to fill the general store that is now my home.