This is a great bed! My 9 year old daughter loves it. The desk is nice and big for her to work on and do all her art work. It took 2 of use about 3 1/2 hours to put it together. I went together pretty easy. We only ran into one slight problem with the front desk support, the holes were not drilled in the correct place to install it. It still works we just couldn't attach the desk to the support. It is a very sturdy bed. We have a 10 inch mattress (with a pillow top it is more like 10.5 inches) and there is barely 2 inches of railing left. We are considering a shorter mattress for her. 
Overall, we love this bed!