Fairly happy with the end results

We got several quotes to replace our old 30+ year old aluminum windows with vinyl windows and replace our old masonite siding. Brennan came in with the best price and based on the excellent reviews on Angie's List we decided to go with them. I regret this somewhat. Our overall experience working with Brennan Enterprises was nothing more than okay. I really wanted to give them a better rating. The sales team, the office personnel and project manager we dealt with were all very professional and friendly, but there are some things I couldn't overlook when reviewing our experience. Though I am fairly happy with the end results, it took several months before the project to replace the windows could begin and about another two months before they started the siding project. All in all, from the time we signed the contract to having the entire project finished, took about five months.  When we would call to see when our project was going to start, they would tell us two weeks.  When we'd call back two weeks later, they would say there were delays and that it would start the next week.  It was also difficult to get in touch with our project manager at times. I would email and leave voice messages, but it usually took two or more attempts to get a response.  In the end, the siding project was delayed a few more weeks because, even though I repeatedly told the project manager that a permit was needed for the siding work in my city, they waited to the last minute to get it.  When they tried to get it, their contractor's license had expired!  They had to renew their license, which took several weeks. As for the windows, they really messed up the order. We have eight 6 feet tall windows that I wanted to have the Oriole style (taller top pane, shorter bottom pane) with the darkest shade of vinyl available (I think this was almond) and I also wanted the safety latches so that we could have the windows open and not worry about our toddler opening the window further and possibly falling through. Luckily I noticed the color on the contract was listed as W which I took to mean white, so I had them correct that before the order went through. The rest of the options for the windows were coded, so it isn't easy to tell what windows were ordered. Once they installed the windows it was pretty easy to tell that they were not Oriole and they didn't have the safety latches. To compensate us for the mistake, they took $1000 off the price of the windows. I would have preferred they reorder the windows, by my husband talked me into accepting the discount. Also, when the painters power washed the siding before painting, the caulking cracked and let water through to the inside of the house on two of the windows. We had to recaulk the windows and they were only a few months old. That was above the normal wear and tear, it's not often you would power wash your house, but I would have thought the caulking should have held or that the water wouldn't even get to the inside caulking. The subs that did the work were very knowledgeable and friendly and I wish I could give them a separate rating because I would give them a better score. My only complaints with them were they didn't clean up quite a lot of the nails in the yard, we are still finding them. They aren't small nails either, gutter spikes were among some that we found. Also, there is one place between a pair of windows in the front of the house with a very noticeable seam that could have been easily prevented by using a longer piece of Hardie instead of trying to patch together two pieces. None of the other boards between the windows have this issue. It wasn't noticeable until after the siding was painted, otherwise I would have asked them to redo it. A few of the bricks were knocked out in the process of installing the siding. Brennan sent out a mason. to replace them and now you can't even tell they were displaced. Overall, I'm happy with the siding and still not so happy with the windows. Though they are 100x better than the old ones, I regret not making Brennan reorder the windows. The bad experience with the windows and the length of time it took to complete the project prevents me from giving them a better rating. The price is far and away better than any of the other quotes we received, but in this case it's true that you get what you pay for.