
I noticed what looks like a contradiction on Zuidwijk's site. In the ESP-Home configuration FAQ, the RX port is D7 (thus should be using Software Serial) as you mentioned earlier.
But he also recommends ESP-Link as an alternative firmware. As far as I know, ESP-Link seems to use the hardwired RX port on the ESP8266 ...
If you have not done so yet, re-flash with ESP-Link. There is a debug window that could help you sorting out issues.