When I had to work on my house I waited for a sale at HD and bought one of those brushless tool sets, drill, 90 degree drill (helps drilling in tight spaces), ratcheting drill, oscillating multi tool, sawsall, orbital sander, and round saw. Once you have the tools you can find out how to do anything and safely. I have used every one many times.

Agreed!

Please yes already

The PVC? Because what’s up with it, also, why?

Thanks this is a project I will have to do (or should have done by now) and seeing this made it look much less daunting.

Also, the PVC…???

Also you could use furniture wax, minwax lacquer, or oil finish to treat the wood, it will dry out and crack otherwise.

I believe this is because of different grit being used than whatever the rest was sanded at. It will take stain and seal differently than the rest because of the number of ridges in the wood (more/shallow in high-grit sanded areas, fewer/deeper with lower grit)

This, create a backer that attaches to the wall with 4 bolts, then bolt the latch to that. This will distribute stress across a broader area