Wow....now sure what to say. You have my sympathy.

Are you saying that even after you told them they had to be installed from the outside that they went ahead and did it from the inside? Oh, I would be soooo angry.

I think I would demand that you will pick the person to repair the damage and they will pay the bill. Then ask around/find your own carpenter to do the repairs to your satisfaction.
Marylu

I would absolutely post on the Chicago Bungalow website for referrals for window/wood restoration experts and get estimates from them for repairing to what you had. Do not do not do not agree to anything with the company who destroyed your woodwork so far. I would show the estimates to this window company and then demand that they pay they bill. They probably won't agree to pay it so you could easily have to consider small claims court. If it was me, I would not let that company touch anything at all from this point on and I would take pictures, too. As a side note to find old wood, you could also shop at the house demo sales in greater Chicago and buy used trim from houses scheduled for the wrecking ball. Murco.net and demolitionsales.com are 2 demo companies. Then let a GOOD carpenter rebuild what you have.

I think that these idiots are just plain not capable of fixing anything to your satisfation. Though they should fix it, and they should be responsible for it, I have my doubts. No matter how much you squeeze, you can't get blood from a stone, and you can't get good work out of people who don't know how to do it.

You might be able to get money out of them, and if so, the easiest way to fix it is to have a good lumberyard or finish carpentry contractor/shop rout you new molding to perfectly match the profile of the old. The wood would be new (unless you had old wood to give them, or they could locate some, which is possible), but you could experiment (on scraps of the same wood) with stains and finishes to get it to look close to the original.

If you're fixing it yourself, then you should look carefully to see if you can find pieces in lumberyards to put together to match your old woodwork. I've lived in places from the late 19'th C. to the mid-20th C., and in each place, the moldings were either built from pieces that are still around, or simpler 1-piece moldings are literally still for sale in the more upscale local lumberyards. A good lumberyard should be able to get you the pieces in pine, maple, red oak, or occasionally cherry. This is something that most homeowners don't know about, but can save you tons of money when restoring your old woodwork.

To fix your old wood without replacing it, you can fill the problem areas with putty and dab stain & finish (probably shellac?) on top with a paint brush and sand it flush with very fine-grained (220 or higher number) sandpaper (draw in the grain lines with a pencil).

I've also seen colored hard wax burn-in sticks that you melt with a soldering iron, mix to the right shade, then fill holes and dents with. I think you can buy it from Van Dykes Restorer's catalog. I saw a guy do it once and I couldn't see the repairs, honest.

Or you could cut some patches out of wood (especially if you have some old wood around that might match well), cut out really bad sections of your damaged molding, and glue the new wood in place. The patch would show, but you can sand it down flush with the old molding, and it could look OK anyway.

Good luck!

You can get any molding that has ever been made for a price.
Take both overall and detailed pictures and prepare to lawyer up.
They are not going to like the bill to replace the woodwork and finish to match.
You can arm yourself by determining what the actual finish is (it may be shellac) and what wood was used.
Do not allow them to undertake any repairs until you get estimates. The more damage they do the harder it is to prove original condition.

A cellphone??!! GAWD!!!! ::rolling eyes::

OK, I am upset along with you! LOL, I love those old bungalows!

Well, first I would see if you could hire a woodworker/ craftsman rather than a contractor. You can get referrals from architects and fine furniture stores (I mean the stores that sell $10,000 sofas) and from that chicago bungalow website mentioned by Kec01. It will be an expensive fix, but it WILL be done right by someone who cares about your home just as much as you do (and what proper techniques are used and most importantly what type of hardwood to use and how to stain it etc.).

Then after that is done, you send the bill to the window shop. Have them sign something before you begin saying they will pay for all the repair.

I have a feeling these guys are imcompetant but HOLD them to that comtract you signed. I agree with everything brickeye said above!

I hope everything works out for you.

Mia

Bottom line is that anything can be fixed for a price. There are true craftsmen still around, but they come at a hefty price. Fine quality work takes much longer than simply slapping something together. Find the right carpenter and a great painter and you will never know it happened. Now getting the window company to buck up will be a fight.

Ditto to getting that ridiculous company to pay for the work after someone else does it. But I'm wondering why you wanted to replace the windows in the first place? Windows can always be fixed, even when they're 100 years old or more.