Secret of the slab

There's been a huge amount of neighbourhood interest in our renovation. Far more than we, or our builder, would ever have anticipated. We've all been incredibly surprised. It's flattering but also slightly panic-inducing. What if the end product doesn't end up meeting their expectations? I'm confident it will meet ours - in fact I know it will - but neighbours and members of the wider community? Eek!

However, one enormous benefit of this interest has been the ability to piece together some of the history of our new home.

Since finding out our slab was basically floating on air, we've just assumed it was a dodgy job done decades ago on the cheap. It turns out though, it's like that because there used to be fish tanks under there! That's right, fish tanks. In the 1980s our downstairs living area was on top of fish tanks. You walked across a combination of floor and reinforced glass and could see the fish swimming underneath.

No wonder everyone is so interested - they want to know what the heck we've done with the poor fish!

ps the image is of the 116 bags of cement needed for the new slab.