The 35th Week: our new home!

We got a call early on Friday morning from the builder. The slab was about to be poured in 10mins and did we want to come watch? Does a one legged duck swim in circles?  But talk about late notice! Fortunately I was able to shuffle things around and get to the other side of town to watch at least some of it. On the way to the house, I was following a cement truck from the main road turning into the suburbs and wondered if it wasn't heading to the site - and sure enough it turned in at our property. By the time I arrived they'd already done three truckloads, so I got the drone up as soon as I could. It was at this point that the drone attracted the attention and ire of the resident magpie that started swooping at it! Realising that the guys working below probably wouldn't appreciate a drone falling out of the sky and onto their heads, I quickly took my shots and landed. I also wanted to avoid a drone-shaped indentation in the floor of our new house... I was a little ...

Well, wafflepods at least. What's a wafflepod I hear you ask? The answer isn't as delicious as you would think. They're Styrofoam boxes that form the base of the concrete slab. Quick to put up and giving the floor good insulative properties, it is an alternative to the traditional method of laying concrete. We turned up for our weekly site inspection to find they'd laid down black gladwrap on the ground and had stacks of wafflepods ready to go the following week. Evidently the wafflepods themselves were keen to make an early start, because the neighbours called us a few hours later to say that the neatly stacked pods had broken from their enclosure and scattered themselves onto the street! Fortunately for us, these local heroes managed to gather up the pods and corral them back where they belong. Never underestimate the value of good neighbours!

3 weeks in and we've hit our first snag. The builder called us on Friday afternoon to drop a minor bombshell before heading off on holiday for 2 weeks... It seems that the sewerage pipes were a little shallower than they had accounted for, thus necessitating a lift in the slab by about 150mm. Sure, 15cm doesn't sound like much, however this put the house outside of the building envelope. I didn't even know buildings came with envelopes, let alone exceed one. So the builder calls, ostensibly speaking English at the time, but while I recognised his words, they made no sense to me. Here's what I heard: "Hi, it's  your builder. Site cut, something something, shallow drains. Slab gotta be lifted by 100-150 mm, something something encroachment or something. You have two options, lower ceiling expectations or something parapet wall variation marshallow frog" . OK, so I made the marshmallow frog bit up, but you get the gist. It wasn't until Monday ...