Good luck with the contract, my last one was on Windows and it was definitely an experience, before that the previous time was over 20 years ago and I must admit it hadn't got any easier, possibly a lot worse!
The SDRAM stuff I am very interested in, I have no idea how to do that.
I have built nextpnr and got that going though, the clock timing side of it is much better, you can actually see what's going on.
My months holiday messing around with stuff that interests me is now over so I am back to work on stuff that doesn't interest me, I am looking forward to what has changed here next time I get some spare time...