Merlot with Terrazza - Beechwood (Newcastle)

Thanks Ash. I really love it too.

The splashback is not glass, but that is what we were hoping it would LOOK like! They are called "Adore" in Navy. They're 300 x 600 I think with only a small amount of grout in between (the grout is coloured to match the tiles). It was much cheaper than glass and has the same effect.

Hi everyone! We are building a Merlot with Beechwood also.

Novavista the pics look fabulous, it great to see some pics of the house completed as there are no show homes to be able to actually view the house aside from on paper. We had also chosen the same bricks as you but we're told a few weeks ago they discontinued these so wasn't happy about that.

Process up until now has been so long so hoping beechwood get a move on soon.

Hi Hollie, where abouts are you building? How long has the process taken you from when you asked for a price? Have you modified your plans at all?

Hi Ashcrash, we are building in Glenmore Park which is in Western Sydney. We started the process with Beechwood in late Feb but there was a delay of about 6 weeks from our side as we were waiting our our land to be registered which held things up. We have made same minor changes to the plans which include flipping the garage/master bedroom as we are on a corner block so had to.

Once we flipped this there were some other changes that had to be made to accommodate which changed the kitchen slightly along with widening the house be 40cm right the way through. Just some other small changes to theatre, laundry, added extra window to master and extra sliding door to lounge.

We are now at the stage of any day something starting so fingers crossed its soon.

Hi there,
I have read some real shocking reviews on Beechwood on other sites.

What's everyone's feedback on them. My partner and I are concerned to go ahead with them now

HollieLot1477 - thanks! I know when we were deciding on plans it was really helpful to see the pics on the forum. That's no good re the bricks! I really like them, though they did have a darker brown colour I think that was similar in the Whitsunday range?

I guess it depends on how many tenders/changes you get as to how long the tender process takes, ours worked out to be about 3-4weeks per tender but we took our time. Hope things start for you soon!

Denber, I'm sure there are shocking reviews for every builder if you know where to find them. People tend to share their bad experiences more often than their good ones. Also, (and I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the quality of BW's homes) you need to consider the price you are paying. i.e. if you're paying a million dollars for a house you expect top notch quality, however if you're in the lower end of the market and you only want to pay the base price, it will be quality however in comparison to a million dollar home maybe it will not seem as good. I guess it is good to compare apples with apples is what I'm saying as well as still getting the best price for the best inclusions and a plan that suits you.

We've been happy with BW so far, we'll know better once we're moved in. We've needed to be forthcoming with questions when dealing with the office but our supervisor was really friendly and helpful. They were flexible with our changes (and from what I've heard, most other people in the forums' changes). They completed our build in less than 6 months.

NovaVista - The darker bricks in the Whitsunday range were our second choice so we have now went with them.

We tried to make all our our changes at once to prevent needing to wait for new tenders but things still took a little longer then i would like. I have to say though overall BW have been ok. I think they are definitely value for money.

Thats great to hear HollieLot1477.

Has anyone gone through process with Beechwood at Oran Park? We have asked for a tender, and they have said will take about 4 weeks! We were bit surprised with the length of time it would take.

Wow 4 weeks, that seems a bit long. We went through the sales centre at Kellyville and from memory it was about 2 weeks for our first tender, definitely not 4 though.

Hmmm yeah I thought 4 weeks sounded like a long time. Hopefully it will be sooner.
Did you get charged for your tender?

I know the Oran Park office is absolutely flat out. This could be reason for delay? I would be interested to know if they charge for first tender too.

Hey Hollie, we haven't purchased our land yet but we are looking at buying a corner block too and building the Merlot Twist so that the garage is on the other side of the house. What changes are you making to the design? Hubby digging a Masterton and Allworth plan over this one but this the Merlot is still my favourite and awesome value for money. Are you able to upload your floorplan?

DenBer - Oran Park took 3 weeks to process mine, but that will always depend on Head Office work load also as both office's are involved in the process.

One tip I will give you, once we decided on our prefered builder I went on a door knock. As we had been looking for a while I knew 3-4 homes that had recently finished so I went around and knocked on the doors and spoke to the new owners. They were all pretty happy with only minor issues from each, they all said that the local Site Supervisor was good and that the construction side and finished product was great.

If you don't have an idea of some recent Beechwood Homes then ask the Oran Park office to give you the address of 4 recently finished houses. You can then go and get a feel for what customers in the area feel about their homes as it can change between area's that a builder works.

I know there is a Beechwood Place on Tander St at Oran Park that was finshed recently, I think it is 3-4 doors up from the lower corner home on Lombardi

(Sorry for the thread hijack)

Pics look great of the house

Denber - no, wasn't charged for the tender at all.

Ashcrash - yeah, we did exactly that. Basically changed the master/ensuite with the garage so the garage is on the left. After that's done a few walls had to be moved slightly for everything to line up and we then added a WIP in the kitchen. I will try to work out how to post a pic of the plans.

the 'twist' option is available in the Genesis brochure now.
http://www.beechwoodhomes.com.au/pdf/Be ... enesis.pdf
at the end of that brochure.

Oh great, I hadn't seen these before.

Ash, that is pretty much identical to our plan (merlot twist) They must of got so many requests for this to be amended that they added it to their plans as this is only new.

Nova Vista - photos look fantastic! Just showed my partner and he loves your bench top - are you able to tell me how thick it is? It looks about 40mm? We have a 20mm included in our tender for an additional $3900 but after seeing yours I think we want to upgrade. If you don't mind me asking, how much were your bench tops? (PM me if you prefer!)

Thanks everyone. We were not charged for any Tenders either, we only paid our planning deposit once we accepted the Tender and when to check plans stage (and then the deposit forms part of the overall payment for your house).

I don't think we changed the bench thickness in our tender LittleJ, we just upgraded to the diamond gloss finish. I'll double check and let you know the width/price.

Wow didn't realise so many more options were available now! The twist looks great you guys.

Dvestate,
Thanks so much for the feedback. Will def head to Oran Pk and check out the BW house you spoke of.

HollieLot1477, we're also looking at Merlot Twist and Verdelho Twist.. Where are you up to in your process?

Denber - we are literally counting down the days until something starts on our land. Builders had 28 days to commence and today we are at day 19 so hoping for something next week.

I'm at the exact same point with my builder, day 19 today an no movement at the site