Meanwhile, Back on Topic
I made two hives out of exterior grade plywood last winter and populated one in June with a swarm. The problem with plywood is it's very heavy. Pine, if you've got good woodworking skills, might be a better option.
Put a lot of thought into what type of hive to start with because it's very expensive to change some way down the track - say, in three years time. Also, investigate beespace and whether you think you should have top beespace of bottom beespace. I went for top beespace because I was advised that you tend to crush less bees during inspections with top beespace.
One essential you need to factor in is the inordinate number of frames and quantities of foundation you will need for brood boxes and supers. Most of that will have to be purchased - to the inexperienced beekeeper, frames and foundation are very tricky to make. If you expect the bees to make all of your wax, you lose out on honey while they're doing it!
If you read some of the other threads on this forum, you will see that many advocate insulating your hives, so if you end up making your own hives, try to incorporate insulation into the design in some way.
You will probably need somewhere to store your "gear" - spare boxes, supers, crown boards, roofs, insulators, unmade frames, wax, etc. This storage should be bee-proof and mouse-proof.
CVB
