The Building John bought in 2003 was originally built in 1940 and served as the Chamberino grocery store and gas station up until the late 1990s. When Bruker bought the structure, it had been repossessed by the bank, and was sold to him for $26,000.

“He called me and said, ‘I am the proud owner of a broken down adobe on Highway 28,’” says Cisa Rivera, a long-time friend of John’s. From that point on, John began the grueling task of gutting the building, then remodeling with the help of Cisa and Dan Diemer of Diemer
Building & Remodeling.

“It took about four years to gut it,” John says, laughing. The remodeling took nine months after John had the underground gas tanks removed and cleared out the inside of the building. Jerry Lundeen was the architectural consultant early on and the final drawings came from Susan Bruker of the Lawrence Group in St. Louis. “The building had many lives over the years.”

When Diemer Building & Remodeling started on the old grocery store, there were no interior walls. Now, the adobe home contains three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an office, along with a remarkably roomy great room – perfect for John’s son, Jonas, and daughter, Rohana, both 11.

A bright yellow exterior paint welcomes from the busy thoroughfare of Highway 28, and warm yellows and reds beckon from the inside. Because John wanted a functional look, a galvanized metal ceiling runs throughout the home, except for two of the bedrooms where the ceilings are lower – John wants to turn the space over the two bedrooms into two loft bedrooms, with spiral staircases leading up.

"I liked the idea of looking up and seeing the metal,"John says. When Dan started on the home, the galvanized metal roof was still intact, but Dan wanted to clean it up. The builder left the original roof, added the newer galvanized metal below it and filled the space in-between with foam insulation. The 2,900 sq. ft. home has a lot of volume because of the roof, which reaches 20 feet high at its peak. Structural beams John himself painted red run across the full width of the building, along with the heating and cooling ductwork in clear view. On the second floor, the heating and cooling units are hidden between the two future loft rooms.

Galvanized metal can also be found in the bathroom showers – a design element Dan had never attempted before. “It was totally unusual. It was not something we had ever done,” says Dan, whose business completes 20 to 25 remodels a year. “That was the biggest challenge, but that’s why I like remodeling, it’s always different.”

The metal also covers the fireplace mantel from the floor to the ceiling in the master bedroom. In the kitchen, maple cabinets with aluminum and frosted glass blend in with the contemporary feel and the metal themes throughout the house. The entire floor consists of stained concrete.

“We started with a basic drawing then John had a lot of his own ideas,” Dan says, noting that John did much of the work himself. “It evolved as we went along. How many places like this can you find in the Mesilla Valley?”