Windows

Most of the house is fully plastered and the upstairs is mostly painted. But all the areas around the delayed windows have to wait...

After the windows bombshell on 10 Jan I waited a week for the architect to contact the windows people (in vain, obvs) then on 17 Jan I wrote to them:
I am bitterly disappointed at you letting me down so badly. It's absolutely not what I expected of you from meeting you.
   The builders are expecting to finish their work by the end of this month or by the first week of February. You already know how I felt when you pushed back your date to mid-February and now you are talking about delaying my return to my house by a further six weeks with all the inconvenience and extra costs that involves.
   Since you cannot deliver the door you designed for me, I am now looking elsewhere. Please can you tell me how much this would knock off my final bill?

One of the directors phoned to say he would discuss with the factory to see what he could do about hurrying things. Nothing about the front door.

Two weeks later, on 1 Feb, they wrote:
We have managed to bring the delivery and installation week forward to W/C 13th March. We do understand that this is still noticeably off the original delivery estimate for mid-Feb. M is going to the factory tonight and will be having meetings with the production team to try to ascertain if there is any possibilities of bringing the delivery further forward.
   With regards to the entrance door; we have a solution which will allow us to have the 3mm milling grooves. M will be finding out how long it will take to manufacture during his trip to the factory. Would you still consider having the door manufactured with us once we have the delivery estimate?

Then on 6 Feb
Following M’s recent trip to the factory, the team have confirmed an additional week is the most they can potentially bring the factory completion date forward. This would be Friday 3rd March, we would then need about a week for shipping to site.
   For your entrance door, I can confirm the original 3mm milling groove issue has now been resolved and the factory can manufacture as originally planned. We are working towards a factory completion date of Friday 17th March. We will then require about a week for shipping to site.
   I understand that these revised dates are still not perfect, so, we would like to offer you our 3 year service maintenance package which includes a full annual service for your products.

I replied:
Thank you for doing what you can to bring this work back on track. I accept these revised dates for the window and the door, and your 3-year service maintenance package.
   I now need to find out what the implications of this are for the builder, in particular any possible unbudgeted return to the site after their planned finish date.

20 Feb
Attached is your final invoice for your order, once payment has been made, please notify me. This invoice was due at the 8 week from sign-off point, however, as we did experience some issues which have since been resolved, we postponed releasing this invoice.
   I have just had the meeting with production this morning, the order is on schedule for the factory release Friday 3rd March. I have co-ordinated the delivery and installation teams booking for arrival on-site Monday 13th March (ETA 8am). 

22 Feb
Thank you for this confirmation. I am very much looking forward to the windows arriving on 13 March!
   Yesterday, 21 February, I transferred £x to your account. Please can we discuss the £2,036 outstanding?  I have now had a chance to talk with the builders about the work that the delayed windows will involve and I itemise it below with costings. I am, of course, quite prepared to pay the costs that I would have had to pay had the windows been installed at the date originally agreed, but I think it is only fair that you should bear the additional costs of the month’s delay thus the builders having to return to the house.
    [itemised] The total cost of this is £2,000, of which I would have paid £1,400 if the work had been done on time, leaving £600 that I think is your responsibility.
   * NB, if the door is not installed at the same time as the windows, the builder will need to make (a) further visit(s) to the house incurring further costs.
   Other extra costs are [itemised] £875. Total £1,475.
   Things go wrong sometimes in every walk of life - I am strongly opposed to profiteering from that and I do not want to damage your (or anyone else's) business. Also, nobody needs to live with anger or resentment so I want this to be clear, fair and agreed.
   So I will leave you to assess the worth, if any, of the disruption and sadness this has caused me.
   Let me know what you think and I will transfer a final sum to your account.

I had no reply to this and had still heard nothing by 4.30 today, the revised day for the windows to come out of the factory. After leaving phone messages and emailing, I heard a bit after 5pm that the windows have indeed left the factory and the installation date will indeed be Monday week. The front door will be two weeks later but at least once there is light coming in I can move into the house - I can live with the old front door. 

They told me that they would discuss compensation once the installation is done. I can live with that too.