Window and doors ... small issues test the waters Last week, while I was at work, the window contractor came in and changed our front door and a couple of windows in our living room. Our plan was to replace the original front door with one that had a lot of glass and was hurricane proof. For the windows, the plan was to replace the original windows with casements (also hurricane proof). Well ... we did get our new door, and we did get the windows replaced. Unfortunately, it wasn't what we had expected. Let's do the front door first; might be hard to tell from the picture, but we were very disappointed with the finish and quality of the trim. The mitre joint on the trim (which is aluminum) had enough of a gap to put a quarter in it. The other thing (much more major, which isn't in the picture), is that the door is 3" shorter than the original. Apparently, the original door was not a standard size. The door contractor made the decision to shorten the opening and put a standard height door (without our consultation). Now the windows ... this is another example of a decision made (by the window contractor), without any consultation. It turns out (so he says) that you cannot have windows that open that are taller than 72". The original windows are 75". To resolve the problem, the contractor added a blank (see photo) at the bottom of the opening, and maintained the windows at 72". We have other windows in the house that are 75", but they do not have opening glass. I spoke with Steve (our prime contractor), and explained our concerns and issues. Unfortunately due to my travel schedule, this took a couple of days. Steve spoke with the window contractor, and we all agreed that this didn't meet our expectation and it would be fixed. The windows will be replaced with non-opening, to conform to the code. While not ideal, we rarely open the windows, as the salt air causes a great deal of harm on everything inside. We have a couple of options on the door; 1. They will replace it with the correct size or 2. They will repair the trim and we can use it elsewhere (need to think about this). The only reason we are considering #2, is that we have been talking about getting a custom wood door. Once we saw the door up, we realized that it was quite plain ... not bad, but not "impressive". Steve suggested making a solid mahogany (or other wood) door. One that was made to our spec, with our design (he's made others). So, the idea of a "custom" door that brings fine details to the entrance is very interesting. In the end, while we had an issue, it was quickly resolved and we remain happy and with our expectations met. I never expected this project to go without issues. This likely isn't going to be the last ... and we hope they all are handled the same way. I'm a huge believer that you can judge people not by the mistakes they make, but by how they handle them.