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| 7/28/2010 10:42:00 AM | Tri-State Profile - Rick Benson
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by Doug Graham - Reporter
Rick Benson, owner of Rick Benson Construction, has managed to stay busy during the construction industry's slump by focusing on his high-end spec houses in neighborhoods such as Loma Linda and Arbor Hills.
What kind of construction do you specialize in?
We build luxury spec houses. I don't like to say "spec" - a semi-custom house is how I refer to it. I start out with the idea and the nuts and bolts of it. You can come in (to a half-finished house), you can pick your finishes, you can pick your tile, granite, stuff like that. I do the legwork of the basic structure and figuring that out, and then you can come in and customize it to your needs. That's the way we like to do it. A lot of people don't want to build a house. It's nine months to a year to build it, and it's a lot of decisions you have to make. They can come into this and in 90 days probably have it done.
When did you start in this business?
I started out in the industrial side. I worked for a couple of local companies here in town - factories, doing maintenance and engineering for them. My wife and I would buy a house, fix it up, live in it, sell it. We did that for several years and owned several houses. And then we decided to build a new one, and actually built our first new one. There was no going back to remodels after that. We liked it; we get to pick what we want to put in them. We've been building for about I'd say for 10 years now.
What is it you like about construction?
I like seeing a vacant lot and seeing a house go up. I like the process. It's exciting because you pull up and every day something different is going on and you can see it grow as it goes through. You go from a lot with trees and grass on it to when you're done a finished house. We're pretty proud of those things. When you're a builder, you can go around and look at what you've done, and that's a nice thing - to be able to see your results and your effort, what you worked for. Not a whole lot of other businesses can do that. You can drive around 20 years from now and be able to say, I did that one, that one, this is what I was doing here. You get to be creative. I think that's why I like building the spec houses. I like the spec houses a little more because I get to be more creative - use my ideas.
How involved are you in the design process?
In the whole thing. I draw the floor plans. I pick the brick, the stone, everything. I get right in the middle of it. I usually design myself. My wife and I look at a lot of houses, do a lot of research, see things we like, incorporate that into our projects. But I like it because you get to be - it's a great creative outlet. That's my favorite part about this is you get to be creative and you get to see something from start to finish.
It sounds like it's almost an art project for you.
It is. That's what a house is. It's your own style. When you build a house, it's your reflection of yourself and your style and what you want to do. When you do an art project as an artist, as you do it, your taste changes and what you want to do changes. And that's how it is in housing - you've got to constantly keep evolving. We follow technology really close - technology and efficiencies.
Why luxury homes in particular?
The thing about this is, when you're building a house of this caliber, you get to use a lot of products that you couldn't be using in some other houses. I mean, you get to put the house sound in, sometimes you get to put home theaters in. You get to do a lot of the extras that sometimes you don't do in smaller houses. It's creative and it's a challenge. You just have a little more room to work. You have a little bit more freedom and get to be a little bit more creative in it. They're each individual. They're all different when you're building a house like this. Every house has its own personality; you're not doing the same thing over and over again. I don't really like the production side; I like every one to be different.
If you could build your dream house, what would it look like?
It would be one of the ones I've built. My wife and I have always been successful because we won't build anything we wouldn't live in. Every house we've built is something we built with ourselves in mind. You never know when you're going to move into one. If somebody came along and wanted to buy my personal house now, we'd move into this one.
What's your wife's name, and what's your working relationship like?
Sam. She's a partner in the business. She's my sounding board and she helps me generate ideas. We look at a lot of houses, too - look at a lot of things we like and want to incorporate in the next ones. That's her part of it. We have an 11-year-old and an 8-year-old. That's what it's really all about for us is those two. If I could do anything I'd just spend time with them all the time. To me that's more exciting than anything else.
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