****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I just ordered this for Christmas for my 5 and 6-year old girls. What I found is that the price on Amazon fluctuates frequently. Over a period of two weeks, I saw this listed as over $200 to the lowest of $99. I picked it up at $129 plus free shipping. I'm guessing this is a hot product for Christmas, and as the holiday draws closer, the price drops. At $129, I feel like I got a steal, even though less than a week later it dropped another $30! That said, it came in a large brown box and was delivered within a few days. The box said what the item was but didn't have any photos on the outside. Fortunately, I read many of the reviews on this site and was prepared beforehand with some lube for the elevator, some wood glue, a hand drill with phillips head bits, a regular hand phillips head, and alcohol. I put this together alone, with a wide open work space, low stress (no kids around), and with a nice frothy beverage. From the time I started cutting the box until the time I was done putting it together was right aorund four hours. Anyone who says they did this in an hour and a half alone is a stone cold liar - yes I said it. I'm a pefectionist, but it's just not possible for a first-timer. If I'd put together a few of these, I could probably cut the time some, but I hardly think I could cut it in half. With two people and one of those two being skilled, maybe two to three hours...maybe. That said, I did not have a single hiccup in building this thing. The directions have no words, but the pictures are very clear. There were a total of 29 steps...by the time I hit step 5 I was glad I had beer on hand. But it was not hard by any stretch, just time consuming. I wish the pictures in the instruction manual had some color photos...this would have helped on one or two of the steps, but I just looked up pictures of the product on Amazon on my phone and that was good enough to guide me. All the parts were clearly labeled and numbered with a little white sticker, which was really important to the ease of putting this together. The screws were all separated in a little vaccuum pouch, and were even color coded. Again, this was extremely important. All of the holes in the wood were in the right places and all of the wood was cut to the right dimension. When contructing the wing on the left, there was one piece that didn't match just perfect, but I made it work with little effort. When I started, I wood glued the elevator pieces, but stopped gluing there. By the time I had the whole thing put together, honestly I don't think it needs the wood glue. This thing is very sturdy, it's huge, and it's beautiful. I'm totally impressed with myself. I knew I was awesome, but I'm now in awe of myself for selecting this product and putting it together all by myself. I can not wait to see the look on my girls' faces come Christmas morning. Kidkraft made an awesome product in this doll house. I did purchase the Kidcraft Professional Doll Set as an accessory. Biggest warning I have for a prospective buyer is this thing is huge!! Like if it falls on a kid, you seriously have to worry about brain bleeds and hospital copays. I plan to anchor this to the wall, which likely will take more beer to do. I have to transport this from my mom's house to my house now, which will require keeping the main house split from the wing and using a pick-up truck bed. I have to admit, when I first opened the box, there was an alcohol-fueled tirade of choice expletives echoing throughout my mom's home, but once I set my mind to it, it went smooth as a baby bottom.
