My MF Challenge

Beckyy

Exciting stuff about the new puppy! Let us know when you get him/her

MallyGirl

New puppy has now been with us since Sunday. He is totally gorgeous. Search 'alaskan malamute black and white puppy' to see what he looks like. He is 10 weeks old and a fluff ball and his ears are not up yet.
He wouldn't sleep in the crate I had bought so there was a bit of furniture moving first night to corral him on my side of the bed. I got a puppy pen ordered next morning and he is much happier in that. He does wake at 5am though
Building work is moving fast now. The steels are in to support the lantern roof and they knocked through to the kitchen roughly yesterday so that is now cold and dark. Today they are going to board it up properly so that it is secure but they will remove the only radiator at the same time brrrr!
Despite a very formal looking contract the contractors don't seem to be asking for the staged payments as quickly as they might so that is good for us - the money just sits there offsetting the mortgage interest.
I am off for a lovely walk in the New Forest tomorrow with our other dog. She wears a backpack and carries weight, working towards Working Dog titles. It will be very peaceful compared to a week settling a new puppy in to our pack.

MallyGirl

The puppy will have an outing to PAH today in a shopping trolley as his vaccinations need a week to take full effect. He needs a smaller collar than the smallest one we had, and he will get to meet lots of strange people. Double bubble.

Beckyy

Enjoy your outing to PAH.

The vet told us to take our pup for walks to the beach after his vac as it was washed twice a day by the tide and is quite quiet here. Sure it won't be long before he's all grown up!

Glad the building is coming along well, when do you think it will be finished?

MallyGirl

They say end November, so hopefully by Christmas

MallyGirl

The building work seems everlasting here. Now that the weather has changed the dogs are tracking mud all over the carpets Thankfully the contractors have agreed to get the carpet cleaned for us when it is all over.

Plusses:
- Our new puppy is a gorgeous bundle of fluff and seems to be getting on OK with the existing dog
- I moved to fixed rate deal with nPower last month and they have now announced 10% price hike.
- I sold my company sharesave shares today - I paid in £9k over 3 years and sold them for £23k ish. I had to 'give' some shares to DH to avoid being hit by capital gains but it was worth it. Educational too.
- Convinced DD to list some of her dolls which should free up some space before the inevitable influx of pressies at Christmas. She is the only grandchild on one side of the family so she gets quite a lot of stuff.
- I did a quote with Admiral multicar and it came in at over £400 less than our renewal, with Admiral :mad: Thankfully they price matched:T
Minusses:
- Mud!
- housetraining a puppy with limited access to the garden
- OH is away all week in a posh hotel leaving me with builders, plasterers, plumber, puppy, mud!

Beckyy

I hope your building work is going to plan and puppy housetraining is going well!

MallyGirl

Back after a bit of a break.

The building work is finished and we love it

After some huge spending last year we are now back into normal spending and can get back to paying off the mortgage.

Pluses:
Mack the puppy is nearly 6 months now and still totally gorgeous.
The dogs are getting on really well.
I love the new Landy we had to switch to to fit the 2 dogs in
The new extension is fab and we spend most of our time in there.
I managed to get £120 off out annual BT bill yesterday for the same service as we were on an old tariff.
DD is really enjoying her new grammar school

Minuses:
The weather
The underfloor heating went crazy yesterday and is stuck on so the temp in the new room is 24 degrees, and was all night. Engineer coming today - still in warranty
OH still doesn't like DD's new school and constantly compares it negatively to the independent she was at. Not in front of DD though so at least that is something.
The building work has trashed the garden so that is this year's project

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas break and are now ready for anything 2014 throws at them.

LauraJo

Hi Mally!
Just had a read from start to finish! Glad to hear the building work went well - its just such a disruption isn't it!! Pup sounds lovely. I really want another one (have 2 already) but OH says people with 3 or more are weird! Not that I really mind being weird

MallyGirl

A lot of our friends with malamutes have more than 2 but then you need a van not a Discovery
There were times during the building process where, if we could have magically wound back to before we started, we would have called the whole thing off. Thankfully those memories are dimming - it is a bit like child birth