This playground was a gift from grandma and grandpa to our 2 year-old little girl. Although she is small, we wanted her to grow into this playground, so she would really use it over the years. The lumber is great and sturdy, as is the structure once completely built. We are very tall, 200+ pound people, and we climbed inside to build the crows nest without any wobbling or creaking. Some recommendations: My husband and I built this over a period of 4 days in bits, the first day being the day of delivery - it arrived at 1:00 p.m. and we began inventory at that time and finished in a couple of hours. Organization is a MUST. Inventory all the hardware into labeled plastic cups and/or plastic containers (Ziplock or Glad disposable containers are the best!). Next, inventory all the wood BEFORE YOU BEGIN. We were missing a pack of screws and a floor board, and we had 2 completely cracked pieces of lumber. It is imperative that you inventory the lumber and hardware first, so that you can order anything that is missing ASAP. We are in Miami, FL and it took the replacement parts 7 days to arrive. It must be said that their customer support is EXCELLENT. They are ready, willing and able to ship out everything and anything you may need. We began the project even with the missing pieces, sine they were not necessary until the end, or could be installed later in the building process. Be sure to have your drill bits, as well as a hex bit. This will get everything done much faster. I basically would prepare all screw with their washers, etc. and grab the necessary boards to complete each step, while my husband installed them. I was also in charge of relaying the instructions from the manual. This swing set is SO EASY to build. you need not have a great deal of experience to complete it. Our knowledge of "building" doesn't extend beyond home repairs and building other small pieces of furniture in the house when purchased, and we found it to be a breeze to build. Again...organization is of the greatest importance. We found the picnic table to be a bit tricky. It seems if it had been built first and then attached, it would have been easier. The only issue I had was with the spacing of boards. It doesn't always say in the instructions whether the boards should be slightly spaced or touching, and when installing the wall boards, we had them touching just like the floor, only to find that they should have been spaced ever so slightly, NOT like the floor boards - we ended up with a 1 inch gap at one end that looked awful. We then had to remove all the boards and reinstall them, which wastes quite a bit of time. Finally, beware that the safety handles for the rock climbing wall are pictures here, but there are no installation instructions, so we improvised. There are also a few instances where the instructions call for a screw that is too short, or makes no sense. We also swapped the monkey bars and slide due to space/safety issues in our yard specifically, so the pictures may look odd :) don't waste your hard-earned money on smaller versions for the same money. If you're going to dish out 1,300, but THIS ONE. IT ROCKS!

Either everyone else bought a different product or the one I bought came from a different manufacturer. The instructions are worthless, ie, asking to drill the wrong size holes (too small), noting to use the wrong size screws (too short), noting incorrect quantities (listing more pieces needed than it came with), etc etc etc. I'm a contractor and hold a masters degree and the instructions could have made it any more difficult. I would have organized the shipping better, labeled the items differently (used more letters for grouping and organizing) and machine drilled more holes (in lieu of asking the customer to do it). I hope seeing my son smile once I go buy extra screws and reinforce the structure will make up any regrets I may have for my purchase.

We have owned this for nearly two years now and my sons have played on it quite a bit. It's still rock-solid and I expect it will last until my kids outgrow it. The only time our set shifts or moves at all is when a kid at the upper end of the weight range swings high. Even then, the movement is not worrisome. I looked at play sets by other companies, and play sets that offer such a variety of activities cost at least twice as much. Because there is so much to do, this is a good set if you have a lot of kids or if the neighbor kids come over; several children can play on it at the same time. Because of some head-clearance issues (see below) it's better suited to kids under 10, but if you have a big kid who still likes play sets, he/she can use it until he/she reaches 150 lbs. If appearance matters to you, this is one of the best-looking play sets out there (assuming you keep it stained and sealed, of course). The bay "windows", wood roof, clubhouse, crow's nest, and gable detailing make it very upscale-looking. The design is good for a variety of imaginative play - the crow's nest and telescope allow it to serve as a "pirate ship" or the clubhouse and picnic table can transform it to a "house" or "restaurant." My kids especially love being able to look out over the whole neighborhood from the crow's nest. The set comes with two standard swings and a two-person glider. The swings can easily be removed if you want the open space under them, or you could replace one/both of the standard swings with a baby swing. The assembly is a big project. You really need two people for parts of the assembly (there are some large, heavy parts and sub-assemblies). Trust me: you WILL want access to power tools! There are a LOT of screws and bolts, not to mention holes to drill. The instructions are mostly okay, but they are definitely wrong in some places. Someone with experience in building can spot the errors and figure out how to compensate, but people who need perfect instructions are going to run into trouble. The instructions estimate that two moderately competent adults can build it in 24-36 hours and based on our experience that estimate is reasonable. Various quibbles: 1. The play telescope falls off too easily. Ours kept ending up on the ground, and the kids eventually got tired of reattaching it and gave up on using it altogether. It's a shame, because they really loved having a "telescope" to look out over the neighborhood. There are aftermarket telescopes out there, but I haven't tried any of them. 2. Taller kids can bump their heads on the underside of the clubhouse. (However, there is plenty of headroom *inside* the clubhouse.) Since the underside is a flat surface with no exposed screw ends or anything dangerous, the kids will learn caution after a bump or two. 3. Despite what the advertising says, the picnic table is kid-sized. Only petite adults would want to sit there to eat lunch with the kids. 4. The wooden bar over the slide and rock wall is low for older children. Although even my tall 12 year old can still use the slide and rock wall, he has to really scrunch up to get underneath that bar. 5. After about a year, the green color started coming off the grips on the rock wall, exposing the grayish tan plastic underneath. This is purely an aesthetic problem, but I wish the grips had been made of a solid green plastic. 6. The kids have to walk through the sandbox to get to the inside of the picnic table (under the clubhouse). This could be a problem if you purchase the plastic sandbox cover - it could be damaged by kids walking on it. 7. The accessories (the plastic sandbox cover and the wood kit to permanently close off the sandbox) are expensive for what you get. All in all, I am very happy with the purchase, and strongly recommend it.

This could be a great playset if it was built with a good quality wood. The set came complete and was not too difficult to assemble overall. The quality of the wood was terrible, however. I had to set my drill to the lowest setting to keep from stripping the screw holes. During a strong thunderstorm about 8 months after assembly it cracked up into pieces and blew apart.

We bought and installed this within the last month and are very happy with the playset. Our four year old son loves it, especially the lookout at top and the slide. We are very happy with the size of the playhouse portion, as it will allow for many years of playing without outgrowing it. The quality feels great and was noticeable as my husband and father-in-law installed it. The only thing to note is that it does take awhile to install (12-16 hours) but we know the time invested was worth it already with how much our son enjoys playing on the set.

I researched for about 3 months on hundreds of different playsets and never found one that would meet our budget and still be a big playset. Then I came across this playset. I read all the reviews and only found maybe 1 or 2 bad reviews and those were only minor things. This is a very good playset for a good price. Yea, it's not a rainbow playset but those things are just rediculousy expensive. I am not going to lie, the directions are horrible. But if you have any wood working skills or mechanical skills then you will be ok. It took us about 18-20 hours to put together. I do wish that some of the boards were a little more stronger, but for my 6 year old and all her friends it will be just fine. All the neighborhood kids love it and I am very pleased with this playset. I would definetly buy another one if we ever had to. The only major problem that we had was one of the main floor boards was too small. I called the 800 number and they shipped me another one within 2 days with no questions asked.

The quality of this was actually better than we anticipated. Directions could have been a little clearer in many places but we got thru them. (Looking ahead in the directions helps at times.) Delivery was prompt - ordered Sunday evening & it was delivered Friday morning. We highly recommend you take the time to organize all the pieces & lay them out in the order they'll be used. That saved us a lot of time when we started assembling the set. Even doing that it still took us about 20 hours to put it together.

easy for us to assemble, some help from the wife and kids, I had my 8 and 5 yr old looking for the next pieces and spouse looking for the hardware. next time we do this we would unpacked all the boxes in order 1,2,3,4 and tape the packing sheet in front of each row so you can look at the packing slip to see if the part was on that list in that box. we figured this out toward the end and it sped up the searching for parts 100%. took us about 15 hours max to assemble. better planning I know my family working together from beginning to end we could do it in about 7 hours. yes its tough for a novice mechanical aptitude/lack of prints and drawing experience. Kids LOVE it, they are on it all the time. it does hold up to the abuse, may seem cheap at first but once put together the structural integrity is strong enough for kids.

Do not purchase this item. I read the bad reviews but saw that there were over 300 5 star reviews so I figured it must just be people who like to complain and purchased this swing set. The quality of wood is absolutly junk!! I sent the manufacturers about 25 pictures of splits in the wood including the main 4X4 supports wich are just 3 smaller boards glued togther. Their response was it was due to over tightening and the set was not on level ground let us know 5 parts that are the worst and we will replace them and see what we can do about dicounting any additional parts. Discounting!!!!! more than five pieces came craked out of the box. The play set is dead on leavel all the way around. I bulid decks and fences arbors etc for a living this is not pressure treated wood it is dry and brittle and splits before you get the screws anywhere close to being tight enough. This swing set will not last 2 years do not waste your money!!!!

I was very surprised by the excellent quality of this kit. We had all of the pieces and they went to together like a well engineered puzzle. Instructions are lengthy, but very detailed and very accurate. All of the holes lined up with surprising precision. Hardware and pieces were all correctly and clearly labeled. Really don't have anything bad to say about this product. It is larger than I expected and looks pretty impressive in the backyard. Wish I had something like this when I was a kid... Highly recommended.