Ground-level deck around new house - options?

Hi all!

My wife and I are building a house (or, more to the point, having a house built :B) in northern Brisbane - all going according to plan, we move in next week. In any case, one of my first projects will be to build a deck wrapping around the three sliding doors in the attached picture.

Difficulties as I see them are:

1. Drainage
The area outside the rightmost two doors is below normal ground level, and after rain currently turns into a pond for 2-3 days.

2. Termites
The termite protection is an "inspection zone" system. Essentially, the strip of exposed slab around the base of the wall must be visible, as regular inspections for termite tracks across this are the last line of defense for the house.

So, options:

1. Dig out the area, fill liberally with gravel to improve drainage, deck on posts.

If not the simplest, probably the cheapest approach. However, I'd have to make the decking boards closest to the house removable, and commit to regularly lifting them to inspect underneath.

2. New slab poured, with termite-proofing where it butts up to the existing slab. Deck joists mounted off slab. New inspection zone extending out past the perimeter of the deck.

A bit more costly, but I think this method would be much more straightforward than 1 - and wouldn't require any board removal.

Any advice would be welcome. As for why we didn't simply ask the builders to pour a larger slab at the start, well... best you don't ask that question.

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