OT - more progress (or at least more destruction to make way for progress!!)

We've had a bit more wall knocking down done this week and today Adam and I have been emptying our house of furniture into storage ready for the electrician who is coming in on Monday to start the re-wire and an empty house will make it easier for him to get it done quicker. We have also taken up the laminate flooring in our lounge/diner so he can take the floorboards up for the wiring. We have already ordered carpet to replace the laminate but now we've seen the floorboards they seem quite nice!

Here's some more pics...

Here's the latest 'hole' - we've had the old shower bit taken out, leaving a hole. We now just need the bit between this hole and the doorway taken out and then it will be one big room finally. Then it's a case of the builders putting pillars and RSJs in.




Here's Inko watching me attempt to cook in the shell that is our old kitchen - she loves watching, and now she has more space to do it in! See her 'devil eyes'!!

Inko watching from her den while we're clearing - feeling very annoyed at being left out!!

Sofas gone into storage and replaced with garden chairs so we could eat our lunch, before beginning the rest of the clearing...

There's quite a lot of stuff to clear out!

Nearly there with the clearing

Once most of the stuff was out, it was a case of ripping up the laminate flooring.

To reveal some nice old floor boards...

OT - first wall out!

Opening the ex-kitchen through to utility room is well one it's way. The wall is mostly out now and awaiting the RSJ. Next step is for the wall between the utility and back room to be taken out and then it will be one big space. Already we're getting the sense of space and it is very exciting...if a little echoey with no flooring and no furniture! Inko is having great fun running around it all desperately trying to eat bits of dust. Luckily we can shut off this part of the house because otherwise she'd be licking all dust off the floor!!

It was another take-away tonight as couldn't face trying to cook in this chaos! Even though we still have a functioning oven and sink in the old kitchen it was so much easier just to get a chippy tea!!

and some more demolishing...

Taking out the last of the kitchen cabinets...

All gone...just oven and sink remaining - and the old dishwasher kept in there to act as a temporary extra work surface while we're still living in here before moving out once the electric re-wiring starts in about a week's time.

Looks like there might be some nice quarry tiles under the old kitchen floor. Not sure if they will be all over in the kitchen but will have to wait and see. They are covered in a lino and then other tiles, plus laminate type tiles on the top. We are going to keep these down for now to protect ant quarry tiles that exist underneath from the building work and will then uncover them later and are keeping our fingers crossed that there might be lots of them and not just a few where we've already uncovered.

All looking rather bare!!

We've also had to take down the ceiling in the kitchen ready for the electrics and wall knocking down work. It was clad in wood, so all had to be pulled down!

Here is the little conservatory at the side of the house that runs alongside the rooms that we are working on, that we will be turning into a mini utility room. Flooring up and near enough cleared, ready for work to begin.

Flooring all up in the back room where the kitchen will be once the walls are knocked down. Now just need to find a home for the exercise machine that we NEVER actually use!!!

And finally, here is the scene this evening where we were doing our best to cook in our shell of a kitchen - not the easiest of tasks!! So glad we kept the old dishwasher in there diconnected so that we can use the top of it as a worktop. We have got a kettle, microwave and other bits and pieces on the floor...let's hope all the work gets finished fairly on time as this could get a little tiring!!

OT - more preparation for the building work

Getting rid of the last of the wall cabinets in the kitchen

Getting rid of the loo, sink and shower in the utility room

OT - starting the work on our house...finally, after over 2 years!

Not to do with Inko this time, but thought we'd post it anyway so we have a record of it.


Since moving into our house in July 2007 we've had quite a long list of work that has needed doing, most of it stemming from the need to get the electrics re-wired ideally.


Finally, after over 2 years of saving and planning we are at last about to get it done. We are going to be knocking through 3 small rooms at the back of our house to make one big open plan kitchen/dining room. We have spent today starting to clear the house ready for the building work to start in mid-October. We have got a lot of stuff everywhere so this is lookinhg like taking some time! We spent most of the day clearing out our third bedroom...our junk room...to put stuff in the loft, the shed and the bin! This evening we have started the task of demolishing our current kitchen which is being knocked through to make the new big room. We have taken out all of the stuff we rarely use so that we can start by taking the wall units down. So far we have removed one wall of units. We'll be gradually removing the rest over the next couple of weeks, in between clearing the rest of the house. Think the next few weeks may be quite chaotic and a little stressful...will be worth it once it's done though. Here's a few pictures so far...

Starting to empty out the cupboards into storage boxes!

First wall of units down

Corner unit gone now too (seemed sensible to have a glass of wine to help keep the energy levels up while working!)

Inko has been somewhat confused by all the activity. She has been pottering round watching everything but has sometimes seemed a little unsettled by it. Not surprising...we're not normally known for much DIY so she's probably wondering what on earth is going on!

Lappies and their love of dens

I've often heard that lappies love having dens, and Inko definitely loves her crates.

Today I was looking for something in our spare room (where most junk ends up!) and came across the little cat box that we had when we first picked Inko up as a little pup. I brought it downstairs and put it on the floor to see what Inko thought of it. Without hesitation she squeezed herself into it, wriggled round in the tiny amount of space there was in there and settled down for a snooze! She spent several minutes in there before squeezing back out. She now keeps going back in there...think she likes it! As she kept going back in I settled down with my camera to try and capture her getting in...it's quite amazing how she manages to sqeeze into such a small space and turn herself around!

Lappies clearly do love dens!!

Birthday and holiday in Devon

On 31st July, our little Inky Dink turned 1! Can't believe how quickly the last few months have gone, and the Devon Nine have already had their first birthday - time has flown!


To celebrate we headed down to Devon to meet up with her fur-mum, fur-dad, a fur-sister and fur-brother and her fur-half sister for a walk on Slapton Sands. Very nice to have a catch up and for the dogs to have a play.


From Slapton Sands (and a night staying with Inko's brother, Tarkka, and his hu-family - thanks Jo and George) we headed down to a lovely farm cottage near Holbeton in South Devon, about 30 minutes from Plymouth for a lovely week's holiday with two friends and their sprocker spaniel, Sammy. It was a fantastic dog-friendly place to stay and it was great how quickly the two dogs settled down together. We spent days at the beach and walking the coastal paths and the dogs had never had so much fun. Inko even got extra brave and had a go at swimming in the sea!! When we first had her she would barely walk through a puddle but she has gradually got braver and braver with water and she had a fantastic time at the beach! All these walks meant we had lovely quiet and sleepy dogs in the cottage every evening.


The cottage we stayed at was lovely. It sleeps 6 (one double room, one twin and one room with bunks) and accepts up to 3 dogs at a time. It is great having a crate-trained dog because Inko settled perfectly well at night in her crate because to her, it was no different to being at home so she didn't feel at all unsettled, and slept really well. There was a nice enclosed garden that they could run around in too. Inko and Sammy enjoyed running around chasing each other, and occasionally barking at the cows on the farm when they walked past the end of the garden. Inko also enjoyed exploring in the shed in the garden and on one night came out eating a dead mouse...ew!...lappies can be so unpleasant with their eating habits sometimes!


We did have one scare on the last night though when Inko, who had been spending quite a bit of time playing in a big hedge down one side of the garden, managed to find the one hole in the wire fence behind the hedge and escaped into next door's garden and then across to the cottage opposite ours, and ran round their garden before heading back towards us...I swear she had been plotting it all week while she had been playing in the hedge!!!


All in all a very nice week away, and we'll definitely be storing the details of the place to visit it again.


Managed to get a lot of pictures, and a few short videos of Inko and Sammy. They are all on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/22914982@N08/sets/72157621856191963/), but here is a few ones that give a good overview of our first proper holiday with Inko.

Update

Sorry I've been so rubbish with updates recently...here's a quick catch up of some of the things Inko's been doing.

Inko and the heat

Like many lappies, Inko has been struggling a little bit in the unusually hot weather recently. To try and keep her cool we have been spraying her with a water spray and have been leaving a wet blanket in her den for her to lie on while we are out at work. Despite being hot, Inko has still been running round like a hooligan most of the time...a bit of sun isn't going to slow this little lappy down!!

On one of the particularly hot days we had the fan out in the evening (we didn't want to leave it on in the day for her in case it over-heated and caught fire!). She got so close to it! Luckily no fur, or ears, found their way through the little holes in the front! That could have been messy!

Tarkka came to stay


On the night before the Windsor champ show, Inko's brother Tarkka came to stay, with Jo, George and Josh. Inko and Tarkka had great fun playing and were actually very quiet...I have warned the neighbours that there might be more woofing than normal but they were actually very good. Managed to get a few photos that weren't entirely blurred! To save uploading them individually I've added the link to them on my Flickr site.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/22914982@N08/sets/72157621256269845/



The emergency vet...why to get insurance!!


Last Thursday evening I decided to take Inko for a road walk for a change instead of the usual romp in the meadow and waited till the evening was a bit cooler. After we'd been walking for about 15 minutes I noticed a spikey seed stuck the side of her face and bent down to pull it off. As I did, I had a quick check that there weren't any others and, as I touched her left ear she went mental! She squealed sooo loudly. I know that lappies are well known for their over reaction to anything that could potentially hurt (just to warn us that they might possibly die!) but this was much worse than what she does normally. She refused to walk on her lead after this because her collar was obviously rubbing slightly on her sore ear. I tried to see what was wrong but couldn't see anything, not helped by her huge amount of wiggling, so all I could do was pick her up to carry her home. She is not light!! Being about 10 minutes walk from home, my arms were practically dead by the time we got back home, and I'm sure passers-by must have thought I was trying to dog-nap her based on her squealing and wiggling!



When we got back home both Adam and I tried to see what the problem was but had no luck. She was clearly getting very distressed so we called the vets. This was about 10pm so got through to the emergency vet and arranged to take her over. It turns out that just to walk through the door of the emergency vet at that time of night costs £123! The vet tried to look at Inko's ear but she wouldn't stay still and was getting a bit snappy where she was scared. They tried a muzzle but Inko wiggled out of that in about a second! So there was no choice but to give her an anaesthetic...another £100! The vet pulled out a nasty large barbed grass seed that had gone right into Inko's ear. Luckily it hadn't burst or damaged her ear-drum. To remove it, the vet charged another £34 on top of the consultation and anaesthetic fee! I should have trained as a vet and run out of hours clinics, not been a psychologist!! Luckily we have Pet Plan insurance and we should be able to claim this back, minus the excess. Who'd have thought this might happen on a boring road walk!!

Inko's poor leg after being shaved for her anaesthetic!

Meeting up with Tarmo


The other day we met up with another of Inko's brothers, Tarmo, who she hasn't seen since they were about 4 months old. We went for a walk in the woods at Hrsell Common, Woking, and they had a fantastic time. There is a large sand pit there and they had great fun running around and rolling in it...it didn't take long for them to change from black tri lappies into orange dogs!! There was also a pond. It didn't look the cleanest pond in the world but they were getting pretty hot from running around so they enjoyed having a good paddle. It was shallow enough for them to cross right through it. At one point Inko sat down in the water and then decided to lie down in it!!

Link to the photos on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22914982@N08/sets/72157621256235671/


Visiting her fur family

In the last month I've had to work down in Plymouth for the day on a few occasions. As Adam was due to be working on an event two of the nights I was away there was going to be no-one at home for the Dink. So I took her down to Devon with me and dropped her off with Jennifer and Jay and she had a great time playing with her fur-mum Neka, fur-dad Keskiyo, fur-sister Maija, and the lovely Annie-Bear.


Show update

Inko is still very much enjoying going to shows. She loves meeting up with all the people and dogs. She also loves having a chance to sit on lots of chairs! She is obsessed with them, and doesn't care who they belong to!

• She came 2nd in puppy bitch at Bath, where she was up against her sister Kaija.
• She came 2nd in puppy at Guildford, to her brother Tarkka.
• She came 1st in puppy bitch at Southern Counties, but got beaten by Tarkka in the puppy challenge.
• Windsor wasn't quite so successful, where she came 5th in the junior bitch class...but she behaved very nicely...better than she often does...so I was pleased enough with that so didn't mind the 5th place!
• She got best puppy in breed at East of England...she was the only puppy but that's by-the-by! She once again behaved very nicely so that's very good.

Looking forward to National Working and Pastoral Breeds in Malvern next weekend, followed the next day by Evesham...camping with loads of the lappy gang will be good fun :)

The Dink is home!

Woo hoo! The Dink is back home after her trip up to Scotland and it's great to have her back. I got a lovely wiggly and squeeky welcome from her when I picked her up from Jennifer's on Wednesday morning!! I think she was pleased to see me! Didn't hear a peep out of her all the way home and she slept all afternoon and much of the evening. Think all the excitement of having so many of her fur-family to play with over the last few days had tired her out!! I think she is missing them quite a bit too...will be nice when we have a second lappy sometime to give her a playmate!!

Too quiet!

This weekend Inko is going to her first 'foreign' show! She is going to Scotland with her breeder Jennifer! On Wednesday afternoon Adam drove the Dink to a service station somewhere near Bristol for a carpark handover with Jennifer as it was roughly half way between us in Surrey and her in Devon! I will then be picking her up on Wednesday next week. A whole week of no Inky Dink!! :(

It is sooo weird here without the Dink!! It feels very odd not having her pottering around. I'm sure the neighbours are appreciating the lack of early morning and late night barking in the garden but we're finding it very strange!! Sounds like Inko is having a great time with her fur-mum, fur-dad and sister though, so I'm sure she's not missing us at all!!

Sorry for no posts for ages - and some more pics

To congratulate Inko on her qualification for crufts at Builth Wells, Jennifer (her breeder) sent her a present in the post (addressed to 'T. I. Dink'....for 'The Inky Dink'!!) - she got a great squeaky toy and some very smelly tripe sticks! Inko thought the squeaky toy was fab and spent the whole night squeaking it! Unfortunately for our ears, Inko is not one of those dogs who manages to 'kill' a squeaky within a matter of minutes - she's actually quite gentle with cuddly toys so squeaks last ages. Managed to get a video of her squeaking...multiply this by about 2 hours and that was how our evening went :)

Inko's congratulations card from Neka (mum), Keskiyo (dad) and Maija (sister)

Can't believe Inko turned 9 months old a few days ago - she is growing up so quickly!! Thought I'd put a few other pics on to show how big our little girl is getting!

Inko age 8 weeks on her first day at home...can't believe how quickly they grow!

Inko quite likes bamboo canes!

Inko doing her best 'parrot' impression on my shoulder