Let me begin by saying that I am skilled at building things. I built the bed by myself. It took me between 3-4 hours to put the bed together. The drawers took some time and were a little tricky because the holes that were drilled for the dowels were off a little on one side. I had to slightly force the sides in order to get them to align a little bit better. This made it easier to slide the drawer bottom(s) in. The rest of the bed was very straight forward. Make sure to buy wood glue. I glued the dowels on both ends the glued the end pieces of wood before I tightened each piece. The result is a a very sturdy, heavy duty bed. I would recommend this bed.