Unit comes in one large/heavy box...I needed my husband’s help carrying it into the house and up the stairs, but once that was done...one ‘small person’ was able to assemble the unit by myself.  It took me about 2 hours and I used a screw driver like the directions suggested.  I did not have any problem with any of the holes...the unit is manufactured well and the directions were quite reasonable.  We put some corner protectors on the edges and elected to not use the optional coat rack and we did not use one of the shelves for the side unit in order to accommodate our daughter’s larger picture books.  We drilled two holes in the back panel to run some speaker wire...panel held up well.  The window seat area in the photo is 50 inches...the bench fit nicely.  Overall, very pleased with this purchase.  The unit seems stable and heavy enough in itself that we are not afraid of the unit tipping over even if our kid climbs on it in a silly manner...which could very well happen!