Tom, on one of my sites I have Childishly Simple and on the other Brick Road. I had a contact form on the first, it vanished and I cannot re-load it. I can't place it on Brick Road either.
Switching to 2014 isn't going to correct my ability to access .htacces and my WP server. Nor do I have time to delete everything on 2014 so it looks like Brick Road.
I am convinced it is the web host. Too many other things unrelated to WP are happening. I have no communication with them. I need another web host. I looking and think I've found one offering better than shared hosting, indeed, slightly higher cost, however, some of the most complex sites are hosted with them and there are site building options. If 4.0 is as bad as numerous people on the forums say it is perhaps its time to change.
There is Weebly and a host of others I'm checking out. Bare in mind, my sites are very basic and simple. Just text and photos.