For the price, this set has served us well the past 2 summers. Our girls were 2 and 5 when we purchased this set and they still play on it daily. Regarding assembly, my husband and I put it together over several days. It was somewhat complex, but he has excellent tool skills and superb mechanical understanding. The only assembly issue involved lining up the roof slats; he had to overlap them in an awkward way and the instructions were unclear; however, it left no impact on the final aesthetic. Our girls especially enjoy the upper deck and the cute little serving window.