Backyard Discovery Victorian Inn All Cedar Outdoor Wooden Playhouse, Perfect for Small Yards, English Garden Bench, Awning Front Porch, Front Door, Flower Pots, Designed for Ages 2 to 10 yrs Old

This playhouse does take some time to assemble - my father helped me and it took about 5 hours... we also took the time to read the instructions carefully, organize the pieces, and handle the parts/pieces with care. It is built out of cedar and somewhat thin, so if you are not careful it's possible to damage a piece by inadvertently stepping on it or trying to hastily throw it together. It definitely takes some time and attention but the finished product is great!The only thing to be really aware of is making sure you have a level place to build the house on. It would also be a good idea to have plywood or some other type of flooring to sit the house on permanently. We built it on the grass and then used some wood flooring that we had to build a platform for it to sit on and it's fine! You don't have to do this, but just something to keep in mind.Overall very happy with this product, my daughter loves it - we will see how it stands the test of time - but I think it is reasonably priced for what we will most certainly get out of it. Sorry to see some of the negative reviews - you do have to be careful when assembling but the instructions are clear and all the pieces were there!

The kit is all great quality, well marked, and if you follow instructions easy to build. It is very well designed and all parts were precise and fit together perfectly. The detail is amazing. Highly recommend this kit! Easier if two of you and it will take a good 4 to 6 hours if you take your time. The final results are well worth the effort when you see their little eyes light up and they "move in" to their little home. Well done Backyard Discovery!!

I was able to put this together mostly on my own - I occasionally enlisted the unenthusiastic help of my family members to hold things in place when absolutely necessary, but for about 90% of the actual construction, it was very doable on my own as a moderately experienced craftsperson. You will need a good cordless drill with a strong Philips bit, a square, a pencil, and patience. The reviews mentioning flimsy and cracking wood are basically accurate, but I knew that going into it, so I just handled everything as gently as possible, not over tightening, and not forcing pieces together. I still ended up with a few cracks here and there, but I don’t think it will affect the structural integrity of the playhouse. The directions were very good, and the illustrations spell out clearly what each step is supposed to accomplish. I didn’t seem to have enough screws in the sizes required, so we had to supplement with our own hardware on a few steps. I don’t think I lost any, but maybe I used incorrect sizes on other steps, I don’t know and I don’t much care as long as no screws are sticking out. I think it looks great and my kids love it! It took me about 12 hours altogether to do it on my own with breaks. It was a great confidence booster for my DIY skills!

I will admit I was overwhelmed after I opened the box, but after reading the 50 step instruction book things went smooth.I leveled the ground then put an 11x7 thick indoor outdoor carpet down & built it on the carpet.Lay all the parts out & check against the list provided.I found the construction good. Highly recommended to drill a pilot hole 1st. The cedar is dry & will crack. Get 2 drills - 1 to drill the pilot hole & the other drill to tighten screw. Im going to add a silicone bead on the roof seems & then seal the wood.Im 66 years old & I put it together over 2 days as took my time & nothing cracked or damaged.My wife thinks Im a hero & 2 of the grandkids have already played in & didn’t want leave when time!The playhouse was my wife’s idea, so for extra points I bought a decorative sign pointing to “Grandma’s Playhouse”.

Turned mine into a chicken coop for my girls. It looks beautiful, is sturdy and the girls love it!!! Couldn’t be happier with my purchase

I don't usually write reviews. I figure, "I ordered it, I paid for it, they sent it, end of story. This time I review. So much attention was paid to all the nice little details which make this playhouse so cute that it's a shame the company didn't follow through and give the same attention to the engineering and packing. Let's start with the engineering: the construction here gives new meaning to the word "flimsy". A couple of the walls started to fall apart just from my picking them up. I am a retired carpenter with all the tools known to man and over 40 years experience, and wanted to build this for my granddaughter. I was able to refasten the walls and roof with a pneumatic stapler, using better staples than the factory. But what would the average homeowner do in this situation. Send it back? Hire a carpenter? Buy a pneumatic stapler and a compressor? That's just one major problem. Worse yet, when I tried to put the back wall on I discovered that depending on whether you fastened it inside of or in back of the side walls it either made the back of the playhouse too side or too narrow for the roof band to fit properly. I had to run one side in back and one side inside which, of course, threw the bottom out of square but allowed the roof band to fit. With all the time and attention to everything else you'd think they would have tried to put this together themselves to make sure everything fit. But no. I made this work for me, having encountered every problem you can think of in the last 50 years, but again, what is the average homeowner going to do? Keep in mind too, this playhouse has no floor, which amplifies the problem of flimsy walls and fasteners that barely hold the walls to each other (two tiny screws in each wall). I gave it a floor on 4x4's and reinforced the walls with 2x2.s in every corner. You could do this too, but you'll need to get the materials, fasteners and tools. So much for the engineering and assembly. But wait, there were missing fasteners and trim pieces as well, so I had to invent my own (superior) fastening system, and wasn't able to finish the dentil molding around the porch. The main roof went on pretty well, but the porch roof didn't come close to fitting properly. To get the valleys to look decent I had to leave a big gap in the peak. Maybe this wouldn't matter to someone who just set the playhouse on the lawn, but I did not want rain coming through the roof so I created a roof cap out of some pressure-treated 1x4's. In all I would say this little playhouse is ultra-cute, and mygranddaughter loves it. But the careless engineering, sloppy packaging, and flimsy construction have left me with a poor impression of this manufacturer. I was considering putting in a jungle gym with slides next year. If I do I won't be looking at the ones made by Backyard Discovery.

Love it. Kids love it.