We're putting a new second floor on our old home, and are using 4-panel doors in a 2 -over-2 arrangement, with square sticking. They look simple & relatively timeless to me. One place we are saving money is the hardware. I love Emtek knobs but can't justify the price (door knobs are something I can change easily down the road, not so much for plumbing fixtures, the doors themselves, and flooring). So we're going with Kwikset in matte black - they feel better than Schlage (less jiggly) and are pretty inexpensive. My logic is to splurge on items I can't easily replace & for items I can swap out later (in a couple years) I'm choosing things I like so I can afford to LOVE the other things.

The Jeld-web does make solid wood doors which are good and give wood performance. The pro-core Quiet door is their door that competes on the same level as masonite. It's just a molded door with particle board inside to give it a bit more sound transmission and weight. Still nowhere near a real door in terms of weight or an mdf door. It's about half. If you want to know what a real solid wood door is, just go feel the weight of a solid mohogany exterior door by jeldwen or others. The rest like masonite, pro-core, etc are just cheap substitutes for a real wood door. If your doors are going to be painted, then you can substitute cnc machined mdf doors (like from bolection doors or trustile, etc) as they don't 'move' because of humidity changes and look/feel just as good.

Our house was built in 2001. We have a double front door and garage entry door, both fiberglass by Thermatru. The front door with full lite glass has had serious warping. The top and bottom both twist in. This is in a covered area facing East. The garage entry is fine, but the seal went out in the 1/2 glass. I sent claim to thermatru direct. Via email I was able to get replacement. But not what I wanted. They were willing to send me one new door slab and 3 new pieces of glass since our style was discontinued. That would have been a nightmare trying to get the new one to match both inside and outside with paint and stain. We compromised with 2 new front slabs and 1 new glass. They sent it immediately. We are just getting around to replacing with spring weather. I’m exasperated and haven’t even started. Seeing what they sent, it is going to be a huge hassle to change out the glass AND strip and repaint the surrounds, etc that didn’t get replaced. Now looking at steel doors from Menards, Mastercraft. I see the good and bad reviews, but honestly I’d be happy if that lasted 2/3 the time these did as these fiberglass doors are crap. I want durable fade free doors. I did buy a Home Depot door for garage to house, with glass, not fire rated, my concern in that. Our installer said it was the easiest door he’s ever put in and to this day it opens and closes perfectly. On at least its 5th year. Didn’t spend more than $500 for it.

Grande - I'm not promoting Pella at all I'm just offering my opinion as someone who has used them and from contractors I've spoken to. To say they are garbage is contrary to what I have experienced and heard, of course there are better windows and there are also personal preferences involved. However I would bet that you are a window salesman and your comments should have that disclosure so people can understand what your motive is. Comparing JW to Pella is laughable...just look at the comments on this thread. I also steer clear of anyone stating something as fact...with no eveidence to support their "facts". "Anyone in windows knows this, it's a fact" is a very adolescent type comment. If you don't like Pella fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but try to state reasons other than obscure comments packed with innuendos. I am not saying Pella are the best windows, I'm saying they are decent and in my opinion I would use them over JW just from a support perspective. I don't know the other windows you suggested but I did say there are many local manufacturers that offer good alternatives...perhaps those are but I personally don't know.