Okay overall / better labels and instructions would be nice!
TL;DR Its an okay value for the cost. The precut and stained lumber alone is worth the price, however the directions suck and some parts had minor damage.
Pros:
The wood is nice quality. With the exception of the white portion of the slide, the entire thing is solid wood thats been stained a nice color.
Overall sturdiness. Once assembled, the bed feels very solid. The picture does not show this, but there are 16 slats that run underneath the mattress, giving it nice stability. The slats are also close enough together that children cannot fit their heads through the gaps (major health risk!)
Cons:
HORRIBLE to assemble. As several other reviews mentioned, assembly is a real beast. Two people working together is not just a suggestion / its REQUIRED. This sucker uses FIFTY dowels. Thats right.FIFTY. It took both my husband and myself (both competent, handy adults) nearly 3 hours to assemble this. Not only are the directions awful, but the majority of the pieces are unmarked. We spent over half an hour just unpacking the box and trying to figure out if everything was there (since we didnt want to get halfway through assembly only to discover we were missing a critical part).
Some wooden pieces were warped a bit. Normally this wouldnt be a horrible thing, since once you start bolting things together it will flex a bit and straighten out. The reason it made this VERY hard was because in the first few steps youre just working with the dowels, and if any of the pieces are even SLIGHTLY bent, then they will not hold together long enough for you to put in the long bolts / theyll just keep popping off each other (which led to LOTS of profanity in my house!) One of the legs (the one to the right of the ladder) was VERY badly warped, to the point where we could not fully bolt on the bottom step / only partially bolted. We were worried that if we kept trying to force the bolt in, that the wood would crack.
The slide is NOT interchangeable. If you want to switch sides on it / YOU CANT. I dont care what ANY of the other reviews you read might have claimed / IT CANNOT BE DONE without MAJOR re/drilling of holes (which I would not suggest).
Overall / its not bad and were fairly pleased with the quality / the only BIG disappointment was the bowed leg that will just have to be tightened over time.
For reference, if youre like me and you want to purchase shelving or cubbies to go under the bed area in advance of actually GETTING the bed (so you can assemble it all at once), then the clearance youre working with under the bed is 29 inches from the floor to the bottom of the bed. Understand that if you try to put something under there that is 29 inches tall, it will be touching the rails under the bed. ALL GOOD!
Okay overall / better labels and instructions would be nice!
TL;DR Its an okay value for the cost. The precut and stained lumber alone is worth the price, however the directions suck and some parts had minor damage. Pros: The wood is nice quality. With the exception of the white portion of the slide, the entire thing is solid wood thats been stained a nice color. Overall sturdiness. Once assembled, the bed feels very solid. The picture does not show this, but there are 16 slats that run underneath the mattress, giving it nice stability. The slats are also close enough together that children cannot fit their heads through the gaps (major health risk!) Cons: HORRIBLE to assemble. As several other reviews mentioned, assembly is a real beast. Two people working together is not just a suggestion / its REQUIRED. This sucker uses FIFTY dowels. Thats right.FIFTY. It took both my husband and myself (both competent, handy adults) nearly 3 hours to assemble this. Not only are the directions awful, but the majority of the pieces are unmarked. We spent over half an hour just unpacking the box and trying to figure out if everything was there (since we didnt want to get halfway through assembly only to discover we were missing a critical part). Some wooden pieces were warped a bit. Normally this wouldnt be a horrible thing, since once you start bolting things together it will flex a bit and straighten out. The reason it made this VERY hard was because in the first few steps youre just working with the dowels, and if any of the pieces are even SLIGHTLY bent, then they will not hold together long enough for you to put in the long bolts / theyll just keep popping off each other (which led to LOTS of profanity in my house!) One of the legs (the one to the right of the ladder) was VERY badly warped, to the point where we could not fully bolt on the bottom step / only partially bolted. We were worried that if we kept trying to force the bolt in, that the wood would crack. The slide is NOT interchangeable. If you want to switch sides on it / YOU CANT. I dont care what ANY of the other reviews you read might have claimed / IT CANNOT BE DONE without MAJOR re/drilling of holes (which I would not suggest). Overall / its not bad and were fairly pleased with the quality / the only BIG disappointment was the bowed leg that will just have to be tightened over time. For reference, if youre like me and you want to purchase shelving or cubbies to go under the bed area in advance of actually GETTING the bed (so you can assemble it all at once), then the clearance youre working with under the bed is 29 inches from the floor to the bottom of the bed. Understand that if you try to put something under there that is 29 inches tall, it will be touching the rails under the bed. ALL GOOD!