Who is building with Beechwood

Hi All,
I'm looking at your signatures and the time lines are very worrying. Is there any reason there was so so long between each thing, I can't believe it has taken so long. I'm in the Hunter and we were told it would take about 4 weeks to get the plans (we paid the deposit on 1/12/10 and still waiting) then 2 weeks in council, then 19 weeks building contract which Beechwood usually finish in about 14 weeks. Something seems to be way off here???

Way off is not the words for it. Our contract was for 23 weeks.....bad weather was to blame for that. But to get us started it took nearly 8 months from the time we put the deposit down to when the building started.

Do you have any tips or hints in hind sight - anything that you think may make it happen a little quicker?

Ours was our bank - we got preapproval, then didnt realise it expires, so once it was out of council we had to reapply for finance again - we have a few investment places so we have to get them all revalued again - that was the main hold up (about 8 weeks in total)
and also, when we got our first tender - it was way too $$$ so we changed from the Hermitage to the Lake View lodge (which anyone can tell you that its virtually the same plan!)
Let me assure you that Beechwood have been ready for months - we should be starting by the end of the month - 10 months after paying the deposit.
Its been a bugger but we cant do anything about it.

I would try ringing head office every second day, emailing and just generally keeping on top of whats going on.
Have you started yet??? And where are you building???

Thanks for that. We're just waiting on the plans (supposed to be ready today) so we can approve them to send to council. Although we have a couple of changes to make. We'll be dealing with the Beresfield office as we're building at Bolwarra Heights.

Talk to acrebuild, she is up that way and might have some more ideas for you.
We have storm water and tank hooked up to the house as of today.
Electrician is coming next week to hook up temporary electricity for the painters to paint.
Getting close now?!!

Hey, yeah we are dealing with beresfield - building just out of paterson on a 5 acres.
If there is anything you want to know let me know.
Ill be calling monday after a start date.
Just keep on there back but at the same time, once there after some infomation make sure you are very prompt with getting it back to them.
that was our problem. We thought our finance was all sorted, but turned out it had expired so had to do all the finance again (re valuations etc)

Hi

New to this forum, and we are building with Beechwood, we too are a little disappointed how long it takes, the process is so slow....
bascially we are building the The Merlot with the Terrazza in The Hills District of Sydney.
We started dealing with Beechwood in March last year 2010, Paid deposit May, Final Plans August, Submitted to council October. Hiccup in council , resumbit November and final approval and Contruction certificate Dec 2010 Beechwood closes for hoildays......NOW waiting for contracts after constant follow up for the last 2 weeks, heres hoping by next week, as we were lucky enough to get the stamp duty exemption so have till end of march to get the foundations down and the way we are going it is going to be mighty close...

So getting very annoyed with Beechwood, they just dont seem to care and the stamp duty saving was spent on extra's on or in the house...

Please tell me it gets better and not worst.....

We waited more than 6 weeks for our 1st tender. I already decided to give up on waiting and then it came.

Anyway, their tender looks very attractive compare to the other builder (also a project home builder) we are dealing with. I am just wondering if there will be "surprises" after we pay them the deposit. What's your experience? Is their tender kind of final?

Thanks!

Jessica

We have already paid extra for the piers....as we had to have more than was anticipated...an extra $380.....then we had to pay extra for the fencing around the house as we needed more than the average person as we are on acreage.....an extra $400...be very aware of the electrical work.....don't sign with costa until you speak to the subcontractor for the electrical work. Although with you being in Sydney you might deal directly with them. They put way to many down lights in the house...we had to take out about 20 lights all up. The quote for the lighting was over $10,000 but we got it down to $7,750.
House is going well.....have all stormwater and septic hooked up but still have no lights or paint......have got the go slow on at the moment(thats beechwood)....

Hey Guys, just wanted to let you know that we built with Beechwood Homes 20yrs ago.

At the time , they were fairly new, & their prices were reasonable.

Just letting you know that because we were on a tight budget, we hardly made any upgrades, the only thing we

did from memory was upgrade the stove & oven, the rest we went basic inclusions, the only thing we found

with BH was their "after Sales " service, they were reluctant to come out when called, also, the paint they use

is not washable, which means if you have young kids it's a real nightmare ...other than that, 20 yrs on

the house still looks nice, and their site site costs at the time were reasonable.....having said that, we are

building our second house at the moment & decided to go with Westminster Homes as we liked their quality inclusions.

Good luck to you all.

Hi Jacknruby,

Just letting you know that we have exactly the same delima with Westminster Homes, we too were supposed to start afetr Xmas.....and nothing has happened as yet....hoping to start "benching " ( levelling ) the site this week....so don't despair...SLOW must be all the Builders' motto!

Hi Springtime..
I am glad that I am not the only one...going through this pain. It is turning me off building. Funny thing is I think your right they are all the same, i was speaking to the council officer that accessed our plans and I was saying to him I hope I haven't made the wrong decision in choosing Beechwood cause at the moment I am second guessing our decision, and he was like nope they are the same at the end of the day.

I am just really worried, as I really cant afford the stamp duty if they dont have the foundations down by the end of March, means all our upgrades will need to be downgraded . I have told them and told them from the start that this all needs to happen, and look I am sure it will be, but it is all the stress wondering.....keeps me awake at night....goosh imagine when they actually start I will be beside myself

594jessica- we are the same thought they are very reasonable for all the extras and changes as compared to other put project home builders, but I guess I will tell hopefully this week when I get our contract, I am guessing it will be blown out, here hoping not to much more then the tender, we did some serious changes to the floor plan, moved the Laundry, added a walkin pantry, amongst other things and it all adds up, my hubby and I were getted a little carried away at one stage has to pull the reins in, I was like we have even started with the internals yet.......

Glad I found this site.....and can share my experiences and see I am not the only one experience stress.....

Hi Jacknruby,

Do not despair!!!

Just to let you know you're not alone, the building company we are with told us from the beginning that our land comply's with comply & development (meaning we don't have to be approved thru council we can go thru a certifier which is quicker ), this was way back in June, we waited for all the paperwork to be done, after submission to the certifier in September, we get a phone call telling us oooops sorry we made a mistake, we have to resubmit & go thru council which means we lost 8 weeks , thank god we have approval now, but till now we haven't seen anything done yet & when I call them they give me some lame excuse.....what I mean to say is in the end it'll all be worth it & you'll look back & laugh at these moments ...hey, you may be like us in 20 yrs time & decide to go thru it all again
With regards to your stamp duty, I suggest you hassle them till there's no tomorrow, cos you are the one who stands to benefit from this not them, so be firm but nice & keep calling, sending emails till you finally get what you want....don't stress, enjoy this time ( I know...
easily said than done )

Well good news contract is signed yey! Very exicited !

Got the contract after numerous follow ups, was almost ready to tell them to shove it, I just dont understand sometimes, you are spending so much money and they just couldnt give 2 hoots.....anyways the colour appointment made us change our feelings as the girl was so good and yep spent another $4k but we have everything we wanted.....so now its just needs to start and then finish so we can enjoy it!!!! and not have anymore price suprises....

Lucky we signed the contract this week as as of the 1 Jan the Merlot has increased another $4,000.00 but we were still in the 120 tender period (Thank Goodness) so instead of us coping the price hike we just spent it in the colour studio !

Got to push the bank now for that letter of commencement! Wish me luck!

Regards for now...

Keep on the bank......then keep on Beechwood
Once they have the letter of commencement it took them about 4 weeks before they started.
Hopefully you don't have the rain that we had when we started
We now have septic and all stormwater hooked up. The painter started Thursday....then the electrician
should be in as soon as he is finished
Getting close now but has been a long and drawn out process
Will definately not do it again
Will add new photos as soon as I can get into the house

Just Starting: Just curious about your comments re Costa's and your lighting, how many downlights was that for if you dont mind me asking as we are trying to work out our budget moving forward looking grim...and we would like extra powerpoints (like 10) and 3 extra TV ports and downlights (maybe 50 - all rooms of the house), what did your extra $7700 get, I am now frighten to think....we were allowing like $3K Building ahhh the joys....

Thanks...

We havent even met with costas yet - but we are having downlights in all the living rooms, alfresco etc, and ceiling fans/lights in the bedrooms and we are going to go with a private electrician - I already know from what kathy (just starting) has told me that costas is going to blow the budget - we will provide all the light fittings to the electrician also and go from there.
we are allowing $5k - we will have a fair few exterior lights though.

Hi Everyone,

We too are having 50 downlights , but we're building with Westminster Homes & like you all, we have to go thru Costas. We got them to give us a quote that went in the contract & for 50 downlights they quoted us $5,500.00.... ( they're not cheap, I know )....Just one thing I would like to advise you all, DO NOT get normal downlights as they emit an enormous amount of heat and use up HEAPS of energy, ....Instead, get LED downlights, they're more expensive initially, but they use less power, emit a minimum amount of heat, are brighter and last alot longer than conventional ones, How do I know this you ask? My husband is an Electrical Engineer

Hi

Thanks for your replys...just a couple of ??

Acre-Is Costa's just doing the wiring and and have you engaged the private electrician? We have a friend who is a sparky but he is always so busy and thought might just be easier to get them done by Costas but now I am hearing the cost its a little freaky.....

Springtime - is the quote for $5k for LED Downlights? we have been to some light stores and they are recommending Compact Flouro Downlights (a lot cheaper and only use 9w of power LED use about 5W) but you can also buy LED globes for the CF's also not cheap mind you like $80 globe but guaranteed not to blow for 15 years, if a LED blows you have replace the whole downlight apparently.

DOes any know approx cost for costa's to put in extra power points?