Labradors have a lot of hip and elbow problems that can be very expensive. Before considering the dog, you should your friend has health tested the pups. You should ask why she has one left - has someone dropped out, has the vet found a problem with them…? If in the first 6 months you decide to revoke your puppy, it needs to go back to your friend so you need to make sure she understands the legality of that.
Puppies chew. They discover the world through their mouths. So you need to watch them all the time. Our first dog wasn’t a massive chewer but she still chewed my handbag and a few shoes. Labs do tend to be more vigorous chewers. We’ve managed to get away with no chewing of furniture from our lab but we were much more prepared this time and we had loads of toys and chews from the first dog. He still tried to chew the couch legs, the hearth, the door frame. Even if they don’t chew furniture, everyone in the house has to put their stuff away or risk it being chewed. You’ll have stuff up high for a while, out of the reach of the door. It’s almost a certainty that someone will forget and leave their stuff in reach of the dog and it gets chewed.
You can’t walk a puppy too far to begin with and you shouldn’t run with them until they are 12-18 months. Especially with a lab given their hip and elbow problems.
Crate training is a good idea but you’ll also probably need stair gates to separate areas. You’ll need to allow the puppy plenty of time to rest away from the children and distractions. Puppies need so much sleep and so your children will need to learn that when puppy is resting/in bed they aren’t to be disturbed. Some puppies will just be tired and fall asleep wherever they are, some puppies need to be out in their bed (sometimes time and time again) and made to stay there until they sleep. Our lab was the latter.
Have you looked up the cost of insurance? Due to the health issues in labs, insurance is very expensive. Even for a puppy. It gets more expensive each year. Insurance for our 10 month lab puppy is £50 per month. That is for high level of cover but if they have hip, elbow or leg problems, one surgery can easily wipe out the £7,000 per annum limit. On top of that, you also have vaccinations, flea and worm treatment, check ups, spaying/neutering. Labs also eat anything so you might have a trip to the vets to make them throw up (usually not worth claiming on insurance). All puppies are like lemmings, so you could also have a vet bill for them deciding to jump off something/run into something/generally try to kill themselves.
You’ll have to do night time garden visits, waking up regularly to put them out. I think our lab took about 6 weeks to not go out in the night but would still need a wee about 11pm and 5.30am. At 10 months he can now go from 11pm to about 7am.
You’ll need to think about training. Labs can be stubborn but they enjoy learning and most are very intelligent (I’ve met a few stupid ones). Our lab is so much happier (less bored so less destructive and naughty) when he’s been doing some brain work. If restrictions go back up, you need to consider how you will keep training the puppy and socialising them.
Working from home is great because you can pop the dog out when needed and you’re around. However, puppies require so much attention. Whilst toilet training, if they need to go outside then you need to take them. Even if you’re on a call. You need to check they aren’t chewing anything. Ideally find some time at lunch to do some training with them or brain games. You can’t leave them unsupervised with a chew or toy in case they choke. You’d be better taking a few days off at least to settle the dog in. Both DH and I were working from home when we got our second pup and it was still difficult to watch him and make sure he wasn’t trying to kill himself by chewing through a cable or digging out a piece of long forgotten chocolate from under the kitchen cabinets. At 10 months now, he’s getting to a point where he can be mostly unsupervised, he mostly lies down on the rug and sleeps. However, I do have to check over my shoulder every so often and still listen for puppy in mischief sounds (you grow to recognise them).
Labs are very full on. With everything. It makes them wonderful dogs. They have eternal optimism. Every walk is just the best walk ever. Every person is lovely. Every dog is a new playmate. Every hand might have a treat in it. Everything on the floor might be food. The downside to this is that they need a lot of training. Training not to pull, not to jump, to leave food they find, to not lock people, to be calm, to wait, to be patient, to not be too friendly, to leave other dogs and people alone. It’s hard work and the whole family needs to be part of training (and agree to the same rules before you even pick up the dog).