This house was built in 1984. And it has not settled badly. I do not give a s*** about the fitting of the door if it ends up that way. That's what the planer is for. This will not be a daily use door. This door will be locked in 99.9% of the time. I will not be running downstairs via the stairway. I have another one being installed on my outside second floor porch along with the steps. This door is a semi-permanent barrier to keep downstairs guests, Airbnb, from ever trying to walk up stairs. Stairs. I am creating a barrier.

Someday I might have a crazy person down there. So someday I need a few minutes of a barrier. While I am calling the police. After they can't get them through the barrier, they might decide to start a fire. These are the considerations.

The difference is $1,500 for a perfectly fit door and a guy to put it in versus $500 for a solid wood used door and the tools to make it fit. Total. The door might be a hundred bucks.


I have no problem paying the guy to put up the steps and do my sliding glass to a real door project. But this project I can do myself and get some tools out of it. I have to route in three hinges. I have to put up a bit of wood, which I already have after tearing out the closet downstairs, to be a door jamb. This is a simple project.

If I need another person to merely hold it, I will announce on nextdoor that I'll pay some guy 50 bucks an hour for 2 hours. But beyond that I should be able to do this myself and get some tools out of the deal.