Thx roboticus, people might have different needs for their mkdir capability. Given that I'm the only person running this script, I don't see how this can create a race condition.

  #load html file to server
  my $server_dir = $vars{"server_dir"};
  say "server dir is $server_dir";
  my $return1 = createDir( $server_dir, $sftp );
  say "return1 is $return1";
  $sftp->setcwd("/$server_dir")  or warn "setcwd1 failed $!\n";
  $sftp->put( $vars{html_file} ) or die "html put failed $!\n";

  #load css file to server
  $sftp->setcwd("/css") or warn "setcwd2 failed $@\n";
  my $path3 = path( $vars{css_path}, $vars{"css_file"} );
  say "path3 is $path3";
  my $remote_css = $vars{"css_file"};
  $sftp->put( "$path3", $remote_css ) or warn "css put failed $@\n";

  # upload images
  my $image_dir = $vars{"image_dir"};
  say "image dir is $image_dir";
  my $return2 = createDir( $image_dir, $sftp );
  say "return2 is $return2";
  $sftp->setcwd("/$image_dir") or warn "setcwd2 failed $!\n";
  my $return3 = createDir( $vars{remote_dir}, $sftp );
  say "return3 is $return3";
  $sftp->setcwd( $vars{remote_dir} ) or warn "setcwd3 failed $!\n";
  print $sftp->cwd(), "\n";
[download]

I had to make the logic work for Net::SFTP::Foreign:

sub createDir {
  use 5.011;
  use Net::SFTP::Foreign;
  my ( $dirName, $sftp ) = @_;
  if ( $sftp->test_e($dirName)) {
    if (  $sftp->test_d($dirName)) {
      say "execution was here";
      return "Directory $dirName already exists!";
    }
    else {
      return "Can't create $dirName because there's a file in the way!
+";
    }
  }
  my $success = $sftp->mkdir($dirName) or return $!;
  return $success;
}
[download]

Output:

Put file to server(y/n)?: y
server dir is perlmonks
execution was here
return1 is Directory perlmonks already exists!
path3 is /home/bob/2.scripts/pages/1.timeout/template_stuff/1.timeout1
+.css
image dir is pmimage
execution was here
return2 is Directory pmimage already exists!
return3 is 1
/pmimage/1.timeout6
[download]

I think that's got it. Thank you.