I chose this bed because of reviews that said it is solid wood and well made. I agree. I put it together by myself, which was a bit of a bear, but I had no choice. I did have to use a drill for most of it. I started out trying to hand tighten screws but that wore me out. I thought the platform would be it's own lattice but not so. You have to screw the lattice pieces directly to each other and the frame of the bed. I quickly realized that if I ever want to move, or just move the bed to another room, I'm going to have to take it most of the way apart to do so. So make sure you have it where you want it before you start putting it together.