Backyard Discovery Sweetwater Cedar Wooden Kids Playhouse Cottage with Play Kitchen, Snack Bar, Half Door, Toy Phone, Windows, Flowerpot Holders, and Working Doorbell for Outdoor Imaginative Play

Cute little playhouse! Overall, the set up was fairly simple, with repeated steps. The wood was easy to drill into. It cracked on me only once when there weren’t predrilled screw holes (just for the counter supports). My kids love the working doorbell. The screw wouldn’t go all the way into the door handle from the inside, so we put it in as far as we could and it still works.

Arrived undamaged, very well thought out sub-assembly of parts to make it go together as easy as possible. All tools needed are included but you will need a hand drill for some holes that need to be done. Good quality fasteners with no shortage. I feel the wood used is of good quality. Staining or painting in the future will greatly increase its lifespan wich goes without saying. Many cool accessories the kids will love including a working electronic door bell. I’m pretty handy, took about 3 1/2 hours start to finish with all the little touching taking up the usual time. Everyone who saw it loved it. Kids will scream Christmas morning.

Our two grandsons (ages 2.5 yrs and 9 months) were coming for a visit, and we wanted something special in the backyard for them to enjoy and explore. This little cottage has fit the bill perfectly. I am so impressed with this product, but I wanted to share a couple thoughts. 1. The quality of the materials (almost all cedar wood) is truly 5-star. It looks and feels like something a master carpenter might build by hand for his own kids, not like a cheap plastic toy from the mall. 2. The design is incredibly well done, from an assembly standpoint. When the box landed on my porch, I had a hard time visualizing how this little house could possibly fit inside, without it just being a huge pile of small bits of lumber that would be a nightmare to assemble. Once I opened the box and laid out all the pieces, I was so please to see the thoughtfulness of the design, which cleverly used hinged corner panels and other pieces to vastly reduce the numbers of parts and steps in the assembly. 3. The written directions for assembly are among the best I have ever seen. And I have assembled a lot of toys and furniture over 40 years of "adulting." I did not use the "app", but the assembly manual had clear diagrams, easy to follow steps, excellent labeling and description of parts. It was honestly a pleasure to be able to march through all the steps without agonizing over trying to interpret vague drawings or descriptions. (You still have to pay attention to detail - I made a stupid mistake very early because I wasn't paying close enough attention to the diagram, but caught and fixed it before it caused any problems). 4. I have a degree in engineering and a fair bit of "Dad" and DIY experience, and it took me 5 1/2 hours to assemble, working almost entirely solo. I did have to enlist my wife's help to align and hold the roof panels before screwing them in, as I didn't have enough hands to do that by myself. So you may want to budget more time than you think you'll need. I was working in the dark with a flashlight for the last hour. As well-engineered as the assembly process is, a single "step" might require you to fasten 32 screws. If at all possible, you should have some sort of powered driver for all the screws. I can't imagine having to drive all those screws by hand. (The wood is soft, so the screws go in very easily, but all those revolutions add up over time!) 5. The cottage is the perfect size for our two grandsons. But Grandpa is a bit bigger, at 5' 10" tall, waist about 46", and generally an XXL. At my size, I didn't get too far into the build before getting into, out of, and working inside the playhouse got a little tricky. I worked by reaching my arms through the windows as much as I could, but crawling in and out through the doorway was unavoidable for several steps, and if I was any larger it would have been a real problem. Just an FYI for any beefier assemblers out there. All in all, I can't recommend this playhouse any more highly. My daughter now wants one at her house on the other coast, and I suspect I may be flying there to assemble that one too!

Cons: This was very difficult to build, the instructions were not very clear and the images did not clearly show the pieces so expect for it to take hours to build. Took us 4+ hours. You need two people. I did like that the corner panels already came together though, the middle boards is where you have to attach everything. Also just like other reviews said, there's times the holes were not where they should be or there at all so you have to make them yourself and you need to be careful because the wood easily cracks. The pieces do not align flushed like you'd expect. There gaps everywhere. Some pieces came damaged. The paint is low quality, we also saw the brown circles everywhere, not sure what that's about. Another coating of paint would help, but it doesn't look too awful, it's liveable for us. Also there's a bar at the bottom of the door and a wooden piece sticking out acting as a door stopper which is annoying and a tripping hazard for us. Pros: it does the job and it's a really cute design. Perfect for my 4yo and 1yo. I like that it came with kitchen items like the pans and spatula. The doorbell is a big hit. It's not too heavy but you do need to lift from the bottom, if you grab the windows it sounds like the wood is cracking. But you can easily push this around if you have it on like a mat (not grass or concrete). Compared to the $1k+ houses like this we looked at, this is worth it's money.

This playhouse is excellent! I was able to put it together with very little issues. I would try and slightly widen the pilot holes if possible. I did have some areas that split including one of the triangles above the door. However, the overall quality is perfect and has several fun features that my daughter uses.

We were looking for a playhouse for our first grandchild who is turning 1 year old this month and after much research we bought this gem. We couldn’t be happier. Upon opening the box the smell of the cedar wood fills the air. The best thing to do is stack individual pieces to make sure you received all the pieces as this makes it easier to find parts to assemble the house. The directions were very easy to follow but we also used the BILT app for instructions which was great since you’re able to rotate images and get close ups. It took us a total of 3 hours to assemble. We had a couple mishaps but they were recognized early on so we were able to correct. We did a clear coat inside and out because living in South Florida we get a lot of rain. I’ll probably reseal every 6 months because I want this to last. The house is so beautiful. I did find one small hole in the roof so we plan to fill it in. I love that it has the realistic doorbell. The sink, stove, pots & pans and utensils will keep the little ones occupied for a good amount of time. The phone is a cute addition. I love that the house has holders for flower pots. We placed the house in a spot where we are able so see in clearly. I love that the door locks but I know our granddaughter will eventually be able to unlock it. People have complained about the door. I can see that after some heavy duty use it may have to be repaired. I would definitely use hinges if I need to repair. The house is heavy duty requiring 2 people to move it to different spots. That being said I would most definitely move it into the garage during hurricanes. Buy the playhouse… your kids will love it!

So this took me about 6 hours over 2 days to put together mostly by myself with someone helping to hold some things together at times. You definitely need to be handy with a drill and need 2 people, at least for some things. Please do not try to put this together if you don’t have a drill and 7/64 drill bit, you WILL split the wood! The issues I had were A: most of the pre drilled holes for the screws didn’t line up so I had to redrill almost all of them as I went, and then only about 1/3 of the screws that’s needed actually had pre drilled holes anyways; B: a couple boards are held together with a plastic hinge and they were put together BACKWARDS so we had to improvise with that (shown in the picture circled in red you can see how they were put together backwards, the dips in the wood were supposed to be facing up) Those same boards also weren’t long enough so they left a gap at the corner, which wasn’t that big of a deal thankfully but doesn’t look great (if it was any shorter I wouldn’t have been able to put the roof support boards on); C: the same kind of plastic hinge is also the hinge for the door and it’s AWFUL it makes it hard to close. That should have been a metal hinge for sure; D: some of the parts don’t seem that durable, like the side walls. It says to add a coat of wood sealant to it as well to protect it. Overall I really do like it and my daughter loves it so I guess it was worth it, it just could’ve been higher quality as far as the hinges and pre drilled holes. It’s a very cute playhouse and I like it much better than the plastic ones. The phone, sink, and stove toys were a nice touch to make this playhouse stand out from others. EDITED TO ADD: within 3 months, the door fell completely off and there’s no way to put it back on unless they send me a completely new one! 😡 It’s held on only by a flimsy piece of plastic that folds in half. It snapped off at the bend. This piece of plastic should have been a metal hinge since it is meant to move frequently. UPDATE: I sent the seller a message about the door coming off and not only did they send me a new door free of charge BUT they also sent me metal hinges for it!!! 😱It came within a week of sending them a message. Excellent customer service!

This house is so cute and my daughter had so much fun in it. We have it outside so we bought a cover for it and it has kept it in good shape. We got some fake food for it and it makes playing in it so much more fun. It’s really sturdy, probably took 2 1/2 to 3 hours to put together.