The directions are useless and we ended up taking it apart 4 times before we got it right.  Despite that, it's still a 5 star item!  The holes are big enough for my 20lb cat and it's very sturdy, when he jumps around on it, it doesn't wiggle.  We liked this one enough that we bought another tree by this same company, same results!  I'm officially a fan of kitty mansions.