Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3742Nov 08, 2013 6:39 pm First-home101 Samara0412 ok. we have our meeting to organise the tender on Monday... so im just playing around with the plan to see what changes I want to make. Due to an expected large bill for site costs (about $60k quoted) we are pretty close to budget as it is. In this budget we have allowed $10k for upgrades, changes & electricals. Is that reasonable (considering we will be as basic as we can, and anything that can be changed after will be left as is and done when we have more money!) Things we will definatley change (as i expect little, or no cost, or we cant do later) are: Closing off a theater entry and adding a cupboard there Moving window in bedroom to rear (that should be at no cost) Removing living area TV niche (so not restricted to layout) Moving windows in Living area to rear, or possibly adding window Changing external laundry door to a standard, not sliding (more wall space for cupboards later) Changing internal garage door to slider (again, more wall space in laundry for cupboards) Removing that niche in the garage wall for bins (we have 3 bins in our area, so they wouldnt fit anyway) Upgrading to a triple stacker door to the Terrazza Straightening the shower screen in the main bathroom (currently on an angle - no idea why!?) On the "wish" list (ie: if we can afford) Extend the garage to be in line with the fron of the house - to allow bench at rear of garage Push lounge wall out to end of eves - this removes the TV niche, but make room slightly larger. Extra door on bed 2 & 4 wardrobes Change wardrobe doors to sliding doors Has anyone made any of these changes, and if so, how much are they? My other question was about when people keep mentioning getting a "bill" at various stages for things that have gone over cost, etc.... do these need to be paid by us in cash (ie, not added to the mortgage) - so requiring us to have some cash laying around? We are planning on using our savings for exciting things like grass, fences and driveways! Thanks again for your help! Hi Samara, We had the same thinking as you, just changing the vital things then leave the res until after we're building a merlot 4 with Terazza too! - It cost us $80 to close off the door in the terrazza, if you wanted them to add shelves/cupboard it will cost a bit more - With the window to the bedroom you have to check where your water tank is going and if you have enough room to fit in on the side on the house, we had 900mm on that side of the house as we wanted the other side with the terazza to have extra room so we didn't have space to put the water tank to the side of the house and move the window. -With out livivng area due to council requirements we needed direct access to the principle private open space (backyard) so we had to add a sliding door to the back wall. I would advise putting an extra window or door there to let the light in the room it was approx. $400 for the door. - Our triple stacker goes the length of the wall it's the biggest they had and was about $580 - It doesn't cost anything to straighten the shower - To make the garage bigger your looking at a thousand or two - By extra door do you mean extending the wardrobes? It may change their position - not sure on the price of sliding doors but to upgrade from the flush doors its atleast $50 a door so that will be a few hundred there I would advise to have some money laying around anyway, if piering goes over and your home loan only covers the contract price you will need to pay the extra for that, also at your colour selection appointment you may want to upgrade things like taps, door handles etc it all depends how much you borrow really. With electricals too you may want to add extra things and upgrade tiles, theres all little extras that add up. My Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60910 Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3743Nov 08, 2013 6:40 pm Wait ignore that we were quoted on the folding type not the sliding type. My Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60910 Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3745Nov 08, 2013 6:43 pm jazzyad29 Sorry. Ceasarstone and quantram quartz? I'm new to this whole thing so I have no idea. lol is it much in price to upgrade do you know? My Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60910 Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3747Nov 08, 2013 7:49 pm daniel2ya jazzyad29 Sorry. Ceasarstone and quantram quartz? I'm new to this whole thing so I have no idea. lol is it much in price to upgrade do you know? Jazzy Im really not sure! It was part of our upgrade that we could have either! And in our kitchen, and both bathrooms! The kitchen guy tried to talk us into making our island smaller as it only comes in 3m lengths and our island is 3.5m! I have looked at both and they would be of the same quality, the difference would be the colours! We had a drop down side removed and that was a $555 credit! So if you use that as rough figure, being that the height of the benches are 90cms! You can work out that a 3.5 m bench would cost roughly $2000! But that is only a guess. For us we have about 10.5 m of caesar between kitchen and bathrooms - so it was worth getting the package. Bek and John (and our three kids) Building Verdelho Guest at Haywards Bay see page 167 for floorplan Our blog http://verdehloguest.blogspot.com.au Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3748Nov 08, 2013 7:52 pm daniel2ya Wait ignore that we were quoted on the folding type not the sliding type. I was thinking that maybe you were quoted bifolds???? For us, this stacker door will be the majority of light coming into the kitchen - as we moved the laundry. So we wanted it to be the biggest we could fit in the space! Bek and John (and our three kids) Building Verdelho Guest at Haywards Bay see page 167 for floorplan Our blog http://verdehloguest.blogspot.com.au Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3749Nov 09, 2013 6:46 am daniel2ya kthoppo Our bathroom vanity sinks are now discontinued so we can get another semi recessed one but we wanted the 3 holes for taps where this new one only allows for a mixer tap. Dammit. I hate mixer taps in the bathroom. Now its going to look odd with my bath and shower. On a good note my roof tiles were delivered. Let's hope they work in 37 degree heat and do it today. Did anyone add anything to there alarm through there electrical appointment? why do you hate mixer taps? just the look? i know mixer taps, due to the way they work are less likely to leak and should last longer without maintenance compared to tradtional taps. re: alarm - i added nothing else as i feel alarms really are just a waste of time however i will be getting something like this after the build is done http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/171062125372 ... 26_rdc%3D1 its a motion activated camera system that can email you everytime it detects motion along with some photos of whats going on. it also stores the recording on a hard disk that can be accessed via ip. set one of these up with a NAS for redundant storage and as long as you have them placed in a few key locations you should be able to capture anything that happens so you can take necessary action should you need to. Hey daniel yeah its the look of the mixer taps. Im more worried that in the bath or shower the kids will knock it and burn themselves or something. Its ok ill just get it asit is my only option. And your right aabout the alarm. I think I will leave it now too. Our extra electrics came back at $8k so I think I will do it all after the build. The extra piering bill has really set me back quite a bit now. Our roof went on yesterday. Fingers crossed that the bricks get delivered to on Monday morning to start. Going down to nowra and haywards bay today to have a look. Maybe the nowra display might be closer to being finished Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3750Nov 09, 2013 7:40 am NA274 Samara0412 My other question was about when people keep mentioning getting a "bill" at various stages for things that have gone over cost, etc.... do these need to be paid by us in cash (ie, not added to the mortgage) - so requiring us to have some cash laying around? We are planning on using our savings for exciting things like grass, fences and driveways! Thanks again for your help! What variations have people had along the way?? I understand peiring / tile upgrades / and general upgrades but has anyone had variations on things they didn't expect?? Cheers Nic We had a variation for piers - they hit a water table in the middle of the block so could not use concrete and had to change to treated pine. We also had to get extra fill over an above the original allowance in the tender. Because we had the treated pine piers, we then had to pay to have the scrap removed (they stick through the slab and then they cut them off at slab level). Total extra cost - $6000. This is added to the final amount at the end, you don't need to pay upfront, although we paid the truck driver separately to get rid of the treated pine spoil to save on costs. YOU NEED A CONTIGENCY AMOUNT! I can not stress that enough - I work in finance & can't tell you the number of times customers have had issues with additional costs therefore the money put aside for fencing/landscaping/driveways etc is used to cover additional building costs. Gramy on the Central Coast Verdelho 5 with a twist! Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3751Nov 09, 2013 9:20 am Our home Hi everyone, they have finally started building our house. Feels like forever since we purchased our land. We had to wait for our land to register before we could even submit to council. Anyway I will post some pics. Beechwood have definitely not been without drama since we signed with them, there have been times when my stress levels have been at their highest. However, since starting construction I cannot fault the progress they have made. Moving far quicker than I expected! Slab started Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Slab finished Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Frame delivered Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Frame up! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hopefully I will have more exciting photos soon to share. Congratulations Our home! It looks fantastic! It does go so quick once that slab is down!! Where are you building? Looks beautiful... Wiz Built @ Brooks Reach Built the Verdelho Guest with Beechwood Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3752Nov 09, 2013 9:25 am gramy NA274 Samara0412 My other question was about when people keep mentioning getting a "bill" at various stages for things that have gone over cost, etc.... do these need to be paid by us in cash (ie, not added to the mortgage) - so requiring us to have some cash laying around? We are planning on using our savings for exciting things like grass, fences and driveways! Thanks again for your help! What variations have people had along the way?? I understand peiring / tile upgrades / and general upgrades but has anyone had variations on things they didn't expect?? Cheers Nic We had a variation for piers - they hit a water table in the middle of the block so could not use concrete and had to change to treated pine. We also had to get extra fill over an above the original allowance in the tender. Because we had the treated pine piers, we then had to pay to have the scrap removed (they stick through the slab and then they cut them off at slab level). Total extra cost - $6000. This is added to the final amount at the end, you don't need to pay upfront, although we paid the truck driver separately to get rid of the treated pine spoil to save on costs. YOU NEED A CONTIGENCY AMOUNT! I can not stress that enough - I work in finance & can't tell you the number of times customers have had issues with additional costs therefore the money put aside for fencing/landscaping/driveways etc is used to cover additional building costs. You're absolutely right in regards to a contingency amount gramy, we've had a few variations along the way, nothing like yours, thankfully. But those costs will be eating into our fencing/landscaping/driveway money that we have put aside. Wiz Built @ Brooks Reach Built the Verdelho Guest with Beechwood Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3753Nov 09, 2013 9:29 am kthoppo Hey daniel yeah its the look of the mixer taps. Im more worried that in the bath or shower the kids will knock it and burn themselves or something. Its ok ill just get it asit is my only option. And your right aabout the alarm. I think I will leave it now too. Our extra electrics came back at $8k so I think I will do it all after the build. The extra piering bill has really set me back quite a bit now. Our roof went on yesterday. Fingers crossed that the bricks get delivered to on Monday morning to start. Going down to nowra and haywards bay today to have a look. Maybe the nowra display might be closer to being finished My hubby went passed Nowra on Thursday and they are not quite ready! Bek and John (and our three kids) Building Verdelho Guest at Haywards Bay see page 167 for floorplan Our blog http://verdehloguest.blogspot.com.au Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3754Nov 09, 2013 9:37 am Good advice on spare budget! My Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60910 Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3755Nov 09, 2013 9:46 am Well, we finally received our 'fix out' invoice! Woo....one more to go, on the home stretch now, still up in the air about getting in before Christmas though We've got everything crossed, but also realistic about what's left to do.... Happy with the benchtop colour after all the to-ing and fro-ing last week, looking forward to seeing it in. Tiling has started!! Yay...I popped in yesterday and he was still there, so I went in and said hello. In two days he had done probably 90% of the wall tiles in all three bathrooms and had started the laundry floor when I was there. The only issue I have is that I was certain we were tiling the bath the same colour as the floor tiles (dark grey) but he has tiled it with the white tiles I'm happy with how it looks, but I'm not sure if this was my assumption or if it was written down somewhere, need to find out. I have, of course, a few pics!! Uploaded with ImageShack.com Bathroom - bath tiled white...hmm Uploaded with ImageShack.com Ensuite Uploaded with ImageShack.com Ensuite - shower niche Wiz Built @ Brooks Reach Built the Verdelho Guest with Beechwood Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3756Nov 09, 2013 10:14 am WizardofOz Well, we finally received our 'fix out' invoice! Woo....one more to go, on the home stretch now, still up in the air about getting in before Christmas though We've got everything crossed, but also realistic about what's left to do.... Happy with the benchtop colour after all the to-ing and fro-ing last week, looking forward to seeing it in. Tiling has started!! Yay...I popped in yesterday and he was still there, so I went in and said hello. In two days he had done probably 90% of the wall tiles in all three bathrooms and had started the laundry floor when I was there. The only issue I have is that I was certain we were tiling the bath the same colour as the floor tiles (dark grey) but he has tiled it with the white tiles I'm happy with how it looks, but I'm not sure if this was my assumption or if it was written down somewhere, need to find out. I have, of course, a few pics!! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Uploaded with ImageShack.com Bathroom - bath tiled white...hmm Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Uploaded with ImageShack.com Ensuite Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Uploaded with ImageShack.com Ensuite - shower niche Love it! It is gorgeous! I am now picturing ours as it will be the same white tiles and niche tiles but we are having a feature wall too! Bek and John (and our three kids) Building Verdelho Guest at Haywards Bay see page 167 for floorplan Our blog http://verdehloguest.blogspot.com.au Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3757Nov 09, 2013 10:24 am Congrats Wiz thats great news. I think you will be in before xmas. They will want as many jobs finished as possible instead of leaving them over the break. Be positive. Love the look. Cant wait to see the finished product Building the Esperance at Coffs Harbour by McDonald Jones Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3758Nov 09, 2013 10:48 am i hope they remember to do my bathtub the same as the floor!!!! My Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60910 Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3759Nov 09, 2013 12:30 pm daniel2ya i hope they remember to do my bathtub the same as the floor!!!! We were just discussing if thats what they were meant to be doing in ours but we opted for a complete feature wall, so we checked our receipt and the feature wall is on the receipt. We are also having our tiles ( the same ones as Wiz's) horizontal. There is so much to try to remember! Bek and John (and our three kids) Building Verdelho Guest at Haywards Bay see page 167 for floorplan Our blog http://verdehloguest.blogspot.com.au Re: Who is building with Beechwood 3760Nov 09, 2013 2:05 pm daniel2ya i hope they remember to do my bathtub the same as the floor!!!! Wiz Built @ Brooks Reach Built the Verdelho Guest with Beechwood Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 30233 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110229 |