Who is building with Beechwood

I agree tapsk. We looked at the Chiffon brick, the Chiffon wall at Austral Bricks and actual houses built in Chiffon and they all looked different. Still, we're going to go with it, as we think the grey looks smart. Probably go for the Wallaby Colorbond roof with white window frames.
Look forward to seeing your photo's.

I'm building in South Nowra and the roof storage areal was an extra $9,000. It may be more or less in Newcastle but it'll give you a ball park figure to work with. Don't forget to get the optional (and free) skylights if you want them. Our local Beechwood didn't know about them and it wasn't until I visited the show-home at Oran Park that I found out about them.

Seems no progress on our place this year so far.

No tradies have been onsite, but windows got delivered today? frame isnt even up sub floor isnt even done.

I know your frustration but I am sure it will be this week or early next they will start.

I am happy to say we have brick layers on site. The xmas break felt like forever. They started yesterday and moved all the bricks around the house. 2 guys on site today working away. The SS said it will take 2 week if the weather is good.

Site access gravel has arrived, sent from the lord! Lol. Hopefully the block prep is not too far away!

so today we went and done our final electrical plan with south west. Any ideas on things that could be changed or added? We fairly happy with it just a few small tweaks here and there. We still only have plumbing in they haven't come back to start forming up for the slab. Hopefully not to much longer for it to kick off again for this year.

Exterior colours booked for next to week. No interior though. Does this sound right?
Also, sounds like we were supposed to have a meeting with the brick company to sort out brick & roof colours. Never got told about that.
We did go look, but off our own backs.

Yes! That sounds like you are on track. We visited the bricks places to get an idea of what we wanted. We didnt have a meeting we just looked around. We selected bricks and roof with beechwood.
Then weeks later we had our internal selections appointment.
We recently booked in ourselves online to be shown our range at tile direct. We have booked in again to actually select them in 2 weeks. There is no rush on picking tiles because its one of the final things they do.

Hey guys so we are nearing handover with final inspection this friday. What im wondering is we have a fixed price contract with provisional allowances. Do we pay the full contract price and get refunded by the builder? Or is the last invoice adjusted? Also if it is adjusted can you get the full amount approved for by the bank?

Cheers

That sounds correct. We didn't have our internal colours and finishes selected until our colours/contracts appointment, after our DA came out of council. You will need your externals completed for DA submission. I am not sure of the process if you're doing a complying development. A bit of advice; start making all of your selections prior to this appointment so you feel more comfortable with your decision and don't feel too rushed on the contracts day. You're sales consultant will be able to assist you in this regard. We built faux walls with skirts out of MDF and painted them different wall colours to provide us with a better idea of what it may look like, add your tile, add a carpet square. These are all things that will help visualise your space.

We have movement today looks like they are forming up the slab

Hi there, we received our keys 2 days before Christmas. Yes, any provisional allowances not used get adjusted on the final invoice. And with our bank, we were given the left over money in our account.

Private certifiers.. I know beechwood use their own certifers but anyone know if the below is correct??? We been told that any future works like the deck needs to be approved by the certifiers doing the build. The decks not part of the build and won't be done till after handover... anyone had similar or any advice would be great.

Once you have full occupancy and the certifiers are happy and signed off. I assume you would have to go through your local council DA. As its still under their development until full occupancy.

That is what my certifiers have told me, mine are ABC certifiers in Wollongong. I would just give them a call, my certifiers are not beechwood.

Thanks

Geoff

Thanks Geof,

That's what we would have thought.. I would say this guy giving us the run around a bit by the sounds of it.
Beechwood are using ABC out of Wollongong for us as well for the house. Have spoken with council and they advised we don't need another DA as they only approve the location of the terrazza as we have extended the width of the house so it's on the house plans. The plans said it was going to be concrete but we changing it to timber. ABC won't take the letter from council stating that they don't require the S96 and it is a simple materials change and the PCA can do it with issue of construction certificate. As council said if you change a window style you don't lodge a 96 amendment. I guess with the info ABC said today even after full occupancy it's still has to be done by them as it's listed as part of the plans approved in the DA. They really were not helpful at all. Didn't provide details on costings for their process etc.

Started the form up yesterday and when the storms came through they still kept working. Thankfully my wife found a mistake that the plans the poor concrete supervisor was using was an old set. Somehow the office passed the wrong plans. At least it's sorted. Lucky the build is next door otherwise it might have been a bigger issue. Poor supervisor wasn't a happy Chappy.

So we have just begun our journey with beechwood. Have been reading this blog for a while and I feel it is time to join in.

We are not off to a great start our tender came back 60k over expected. Yay! All due to site costs, things we have no control over.

Hi Needamoneytree,
We sort of had the same experience but on our second tender after changing measurements of a few things. the second tender has things like scaffolding and drop beams etc which added 11k to the tender. I questioned them especially why I'm being charged with scaffolding when I'm only building a single storey. Anyway to make the long story short I contacted the head office who then sent someone to check our land. They did say that we had a 1.5meter drop at the back and the 88B instrument indicated that they need beam dropped to address this matter etc (too technical that I asked husband to understand it)
Anyway from $11k they changed it and only charged us $5K.
You are allowed to question what they have put there and to make you understand it better.
Good luck on your journey. Looking forward to your development updates here.
Just waiting fur the new plan to finish and cdc approval I believe.

Great pics Tom2016. I'm sure it won't be long when we see pics of your house taking shape.