Oh geez...where to start? Let me first say that this kit took me way longer than necessary because I had to take several mental breaks. The kit itself is fine, however the instructions are vague and there's a lot of guess work involved. Secondly, the pieces do not match up and fit together like they're supposed to so you'll have to trim and sand certain parts just to make them align. I highly recommend that you paint/wallpaper ect FIRST before any assembly (trust me, you'll thank me later). Also, many of the parts are brittle and flimsy, so be prepared for that. I used clear gorilla glue to secure the pieces together, I didn't trust it to hold together otherwise.I also shelled out extra money to upgrade certain parts, such as a nicer staircase and better shingles for the roof. I bought all of the materials and decorations separately, so you'll want to keep that in mind when factoring cost.All in all, it's definitely doable if you're patient and creative but it's tedious and frustrating at times. Good luck!This dollhouse was a real pain in the ass to put together, BUT anyone can do it! The assembly wasn’t hard, just time consuming and tedious. I do have a few tips based on my experience.1. Paint everything before hand, and when you pop the pieces out be ready to do touch ups. Do not pop everything out just to paint unless you are going to be able to keep everything on one surface for the whole project.2. I started by painting shingles first. The further you space out the rows, the less shingles you’ll need to paint. Maybe look at my photos for a general count of shingles that you should even paint.3. Use hot glue!!!4. Do a size check on window trim before you glue it down.I wish I could think of everything that would be helpful. I am resourceful, I am crafty, and I completed it in about two weeks. This is time consuming, I am not a procrastinator. I spent lots of time on it, but it’s a priceless treasure for my step-daughter. I’m sure we will get lots of use out of it for years to come.This will take lots of time (>100 hours ?). Look at the picture, The window trim is made of individual pieces. Each must be cut out, painted and glued. The shingles are all individual. It is difficult for me to cut out the individual pieces and my eight year old grand-daughter is not able to do much of anything. With lots of patience, I think we will get a good result. I am planning on three months until completion as I only have the grandkids two days of the week.The dollhouse is now complete and I estimate that it took about 150 hours. The result is very cute but of course pretty fragile. The only addition that we did was to buy some one inch hinges from Hobby Lobby to use for the front door. My grand-daughter loves it. I thought the instructions were OK. When I had a problem it was usually because I had not followed the instructions carefully enough. I mainly used a low temp glue gun. This worked fine on the plastic windows. The oil base stain that I used on the shingles caused some of the shingles to fall off. The instructions said to use a water based stain on the shingles but I used what I had available. Good Luck!For starters, it must be said that this kit is on the lower end price-wise when considering dollhouses. The material used is Luan, which is essentially 2 different veneers glued to a compressed wood fiber core. It is economical and flexible, but the red side is particularly fragile and splinters easily. Sanding the edges will help, but this tendency to splinter will never be 100% eradicated. For this reason, I will be covering all surfaces so my daughter does not get splinters. That just makes extra work since I will want some painted walls. The pieces were well cut and the box was sturdy and protective. I have a lifetime of experience building all sorts of kits from RC to plastic model to just about anything they make. The instructions in this kit were, by far, the worst I have encountered. I strongly recommend throwing the instructions away and just becoming familiar with your kit. It is not hard to figure out how it goes together, but the instructions manage to make the task Kafkaesque, to say the least​. The images used as guides in the instructions were dark, grainy, and woefully lacking in the detail they were supposed to convey.We've been working on this dollhouse for quite a while now. Definitely don't buy this if you're thinking it will only take a few days! For the most part, we really like it. It's been fun decorating and putting it together piece by piece. We did have to adjust the openings and tabs a bit, as walls and floors didn't fit together exactly right, but that wasn't too bad. I think it's a good product for the money. Everything else that goes in it now - flooring, paint, finishes, wall paper, furniture, etc etc etc - now, that's where the money will go!! Great hobby, good starter house. I would recommend for the beginner.I have opened and tinkered with the pieces, however, I have not put this together yet.... But it seems to be of decent quality with the exception of the shingles as they were all broken apart and all over the box. The directions aren't very detailed but they look to be ok enough to figure out. Everything does need to be thoroughly sanded, so I would suggest having extra sandpaper on hand because I have only found one small sheet in the box. Other than those issues it seems like a fair buy for the price. I hope to put it together very soon!A few years ago I built the same house from Greenleaf. It was much better quality. This new wood flakes off and you have to keep repairing it, if you can, with wood putty. The connection slots are not lined up and have to be trimmed to fit. I am done with buying a Greenleaf product because of the cheapened quality.