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Well, all the outside is done now except for some weird small bits the builder has not yet done for no reason I can work out - the stone above the porch window (1 layer about 6" thick) and the ground floor bathroom window sill, and the bottom of the porch doorway. They are coming back which is fine and there is no panic, but I don't quite know why they left those bits undone. Anyway, as is the way of these things, we ran over by a good few thousand - mostly because both the independent QS costings we paid for and Buildstores own costings people, omitted parts of the stonework (quite a lot of stone mullions as well as stone water tabling). I contacted Buildloan and explained we'd need more dosh. First advice was that it would be cheaper to get a loan - so, knowing we have a 999 score credit rating and more than double the equity in the house & land, we applied - and for the first time in our lives were refused! It made no sense, so we tried another - same result. Reasonable income, its affordable, whats going on? On a whim I checked with Experian and found Talkmobile (who I've not been with for about 2 years) had wrecked my credit record claiming unpaid bills! Simply not true! So I chased them - they apologised and said they'd get the incorrect information removed by Experian "in 30 days" - I offered to sue if they didn't do it immediately for the extra thousands it was going to cost me having to go the mortgage route - rates plus Buildstores £500 + fee for filling a form in. So, I check and sure enough, my credit record was restored a few days later. Next day we apply again, - and were refused again! I check and find TalkMobile have done it again ! This time adding a completely bogus claim of a late payment "within the last 2 months" - for an account which has not existed for about 2 years! So back we go, and they apologise again and within 48 hours this one is also removed from my record (I've looked online and they've done this to loads of people - to one guy for a supposed £1 debt!). But now we have several "refused" records showing, so they've absolutely stuffed us, even though they admit error and we are back to a 999 maximum credit rating. So, with heavy heart we've had to go back to the nightmare that is Buildstore/Buildloan, and yet again, they are dragging the application out for as long as they can. First time round their game was to ask for say 3 months bank statements, then once you'd sent them, wait a couple of weeks and then ask you for the previous 3 months to that - this went on with payslips, P60s going back about 6 years and on and on - but never just asking for what the Building society wanted in one go, just one document at a time, even when I called and said "look, tell me *everything* you need and I'll send it all in one go" - oh no. (we should have known really when our initial application to Buildstore sat on someones desk for a month with nothing done until I rang and asked what was happening. I then had to chase them every single step of the way to make them get on with each step otherwise they just sat on the documents until they "expired", at which point they'd want the next months document, then the next months payslip - by which time a new statement was due and so on and on and on. I had to find how to contact the Chief Exec in the end to get them to actually just submit the damn application! A job which if i could have done it myself was all doable in maybe a week maximum. To my horror, they are doing the same again - they asked for 3 months (cunningly sent them 6 months so they couldn't play the same trick) payslips and bank statements, and already they've sat on them so long they are asking for the next ones! They have to be the most stressful way of getting a mortgage by far. when I rang the Building Society they assure me they send out a sheet to Buildstore at the start and list everything they want in one go (Buildloan tried to tell me it was the Building Society asking for one thing at a time - which made no sense to me, as why would any building society or bank do it that way?) . So I've just read an email asking me for a statement they *already have* and for this months payslips (which we don't have yet of course). I've written back pointing out that this will go on indefinitely if they don't just submit the paperwork and keep waiting until the statements and payslips are a month out of date. So I've also asked for a definite date when they plan to submit and have said if they cannot give me one, and do not plan to submit it this week then it makes sense for me to send all things in future direct to the Building Society, telling the Building Society why, rather than them being sat in someones desk at Buildloan until they expire. Give me strength!