What you have now is illegal- you can’t have a step down like that at a door, and a nine inch step is illegal period. How big are you making the project? I don’t understand a door at all when you also mention an open staircase.

I bet this is an older house. If you're going to use the basement for anything other than storage you should probably have the stairs rebuilt. Those look like something the builder threw together about fifty years ago. Stairs aren't cheap because they're complicated, but this is the only way you will have something safe. I would double the size of the landing and have the landing be flush with the kitchen floor (no step down).

I’d swing the door into the kitchen and hinge it on the same side the hinges are on now so it swings against the short wall. Depending on your local codes and the age of your house, the stairs may be grandfathered as they are, even if they are non-compliant. Once you tear them out and start over, they will need to meet your local codes, including width, rise, run, headroom, landing size and door swing.

Can you elevate that landing to match the kitchen floor? Then the door could be moved to the edge of the top step and you may have room to swing the door in toward the kitchen.

@HALLETT & Co. I'm not looking to have a large renovation or anything like that. Not yet anyway. I'm a first time homeowner and I have bigger/more urgent projects ahead of this one that take priority as far as funds go. I'm looking to spend no more than $1,000 for the time being. I've checked with my local codes, and right now the stairs are grandfathered in so at least I'm not staring at any repercussions of that

@kandrewspa yep built in 1969! The basement is/could be a family room. It's mostly finished (it needs a lot of help as far as sprucing up), so we plan to use it quite often. It's a walkout to the backyard as well. Thankfully the stairs are grandfathered in.

If I'm going to take serious consideration into planning a whole stair rebuild in the next few years, do you think it would be better if I had the staircase go straight up, and move the basement door to the hall?

@Anna (6B/7A in MD) I don't think I can elevate the landing because it would be too high to be a stair, if that makes sense. The treads are about 7" but the landing-kitchen step is 9". I don't know what to do with those other 2" that doesn't involve moving all the other stairs.

@Julie Praus Yeah I'm afraid that's what I'm going to have to do for now. It's not the worst solution, just not my favorite. But I feel like half the things in this house are where they are because the owners before me didn't know where to put things until they threw them in at the last minute

@njmomma that could work! That would solve any visibility issues with it swinging into the kitchen that way. I could even paint a mural on the stairwell on the opposite side so it's a little more fun to look at.

It works for my son's home and my SIL home. Pane Doors work well for downstair doors. You can see who is coming up the stairs, and they can see you if you are in front of the door. No one is hit by the door.

Also add good lighting.

I like the glass door idea. Good solution until the stairs can be fixed.

I have a paned glass door at the top of my basement stairs. I've lived here less than two years and wondered why the previous owners did that - now I get it. :-)

MGaillard, if you eventually have the stairs rebuilt and can have them start in the hall instead of the kitchen that sounds like a great idea.

Make sure the glass door has safety glass.

How about a glass bi-fold door?

Double doors that open into the kitchen.

"Make sure the glass door has safety glass."

Every door made today is required to be safety glass.

I would remove the door and spend the money on replacing the stairs to bring them up to code and also make them safe to use for your family. What a bonus to have a walkout so fix the basement leave the door off and bring that landing up to the level of the kitchen floor with a new set of stairs. IMO you will need a new set of stairs and I bet they can be built for a decent price if you do not want fancy but just good useable stairs .We redid ours going to our basement for 2k .We did the treads in LVP like the basement floor and we DIYed that .

@Patricia Colwell Consulting I've been researching stair construction in my area and the average price is 1.5k-2k, which is a bit better than I thought it would be, so that's what I'm going to be working towards. I think I'll swap the current door for a glass one for the time being. I don't want to remove the door entirely because I want to keep the cats out of the basement, who would enjoy nothing more than to poke around in the renovation going on down there.

@Anna (6B/7A in MD) By the way, is that a picture of your door that you posted or one you found online? Just curious because I was going to ask about the doggy door.

My sister added a glass door to her basement and not only is it safer visually it allows much more light to filter down. You may also want to add good lighting. Door should open into kitchen and perhaps have it swing towards cupboards if that would help..

Another option.

The sooner you can fix stairs the better as they may be grandfathered, but if someone falls you will not only feel terrible, but I assume could potentially be sued.

Millworkman, about 25% of the interior glass doors I see on construction sites do not have safety glazing.

@mgaillard39 It is my door and that‘s a cat door. It has different access settings to control where the cats can go.