Crossties writes:

We have a 36" front door, so, silly us, we figured we would use a 36"
storm door. Our builder made us a fancy kind of exterior, apparently,
that bevels outward in a staristep fashion. We never noticed until we
went to install the storm door and found that the "hole" changes from
just over 36" to nearly 38" in a stairstep fashion all around the
doorway. Is this a common issue, or we just the lucky ones? We are
trying to figure out how to detach 1" worth of the exterior moulding on
each side to get rid of the stairstep effect and give us a regularly
shaped space to build in. But then, what do we use to 'fill the gap'-
we'll need an inch on each side.

Pictures or better explanation of the blockage.
I'm picturing the door using = and H,
the frame with - and |:

========
----- H
| H
| H
----- H
|
|

If I was going to adjust something it would be the flange of the storm
door. Cut it narrower to fill the opening.

V ----- cut here, whole length of door.
========
----- H
| H
| H
----- H
|
|

The cut will be placed against the frame and not very visible.

--
Dan Espen