“The lessons I learned cooking 300 meals a night”
“A chef, Mum. I want to be a chef!” answered Ben Lewis when he left school at 16 and started working at a small French restaurant in Howick.
Now, being a chef doesn’t sound that hard. But when you stop and think about how challenging it can be to plan simple family meals (week after week) – making sure you have the right ingredients in your fridge and cupboard, having multiple dishes hot and ready to serve at the same time – you can get a sense of how difficult a chef’s job can be (especially for a 16-year-old).
Now multiply that by dozens of hungry diners who all like to arrive (and eat) at 7 o’clock! “I had to learn – fast!” remembers Ben. And before long, he had developed skills managing stock, negotiating with suppliers, recruiting and managing staff, maintaining a safe and tidy working environment, nurturing client relationships, and remaining calm and collected while solving a million issues a night.
A home is more than a house (just like a meal is more than food on a plate)
H. Jackson Brown, Jr. once said, “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” And the lessons Ben learned as a chef and an apprentice helped to make him the leading builder he is today.
“The meals I prepared as a chef weren’t merely food on a plate,” Ben explains. “They brought families together, were the centrepiece of celebrations, including birthdays, anniversaries, and major milestones in life, and even served to facilitate the beginning of new relationships and life adventures.”
“And it’s the same with the homes we build and renovate. They are not merely an amalgamation of timber and concrete. They are sanctuaries where families learn their greatest lessons and make their most important memories. They are safe havens for laughter (and sometimes tears). And they are places that mums and dads and children always remember as home.”
That’s why the smallest details matter
Like optimising the floorplan to make the most of every inch of space. “What’s the use of adding an extension,” says Ben, “if a huge chunk of the space is lost in unusable hallways and corners.”
Like assessing the buildability of the plan for efficient, cost-effective construction so you can get more for your money -- everything on your wish list without needlessly overspending or feeling forced to compromise. And giving you honest, fixed pricing so you can plan with certainty and no surprises.
Like choosing the right building materials and installing them with precision so they work as they should to make your home comfortable and healthy all year. And paying meticulous attention to detail so everything (from the frame to the finishes) is even better than you imagined.
And like treating clients with genuine respect – generously sharing our decades of experience to help you feel confident in your decisions. And keeping you informed at every stage (including access to our project software) so you always know what’s happening, feel part of the journey, and enjoy your building experience.
Why we only have clients, not customers
Builders commonly refer to their clients as customers. And for most, that’s an accurate term. Because for them, building a house is simply a one-off, commodity-based transaction. You pay your builder, you get your house.
However, here at Lewis Build, we only have clients. Because clients have an ongoing relationship with their builder. You receive personal service. And as the ancient Roman origin of the word explains, a client is under the protection of the one in whom they entrust their care. And we take that very seriously – guiding you every step of the way to ensure you get the comfortable, energy efficient home you’ve always wanted.
Is this the sort of Auckland builder you’re looking for?
This is a brief snapshot of how Ben Lewis and his in-house team of world-class craftspeople became Auckland’s leading high-performance home builder.
What’s your story? And importantly, what would you like the next chapter to look like with your new home or renovation?
Ben and his team look forward to hearing about the vision you have for your home – answering your questions, sharing their decades of experience, and helping you design and build the high-performance home or renovation you’ve always wanted.
