Let's review the assembly and the finished product.
First, the dollhouse is made of good quality material. It's all MDF, pre-finished wood with lots of details. The porch posts are spindled; the exterior walls are scored, as if they were sided; it includes decorative roof trim and no detail was left out. Even the front door has pediments and there are several arched windows. There's two skylights, on the roofs, for easier viewing inside.
All of the furniture is good quality wood, pre-finished and with curved legs and/or spindles. There are plenty of details, as every area of the dollhouse has something to look at, with many accessories throughout. So, you are not going to get a product scarce of miniatures.
The paper products are printed on high quality paper and the printouts themselves are extremely clear and crisp. They were not printed on a basic printer. In fact, I have taken these printouts to the office supply store, for copies, and not even there most powerful printer can reprint these with as much detail and clarity as the originals. This is great, because it allows for the printed boxes, books and other paper items to look professionally made. It will be difficult for people to believe these were made by you from a kit.
So, the materials for product assembly are great. You just have to remember that everything you see, has to be assembled from scratch. Nothing comes pre-assembled. Nothing, except for the bathtub. That was the only item, in the entire dollhouse, that was ready for accessorising with no assembly required. All fabric and wires have to be cut to size, so none of these items are prepared for you, to use as is. This is important for you to be clear on before you order one of these kits. I included many photos of an item "before" and "after" assembly, but there are some photos that only show the finished item. This is not indicative that the item came pre-assembled. I just didn't want to be redundant in photographing the same unassembled items, over and over.
The dollhouse is slightly smaller than half inch scale, but not quite quarter scale. Keep this in mind, in case you bought this kit to use the items in another dollhouse.
There are two versions of this dollhouse. One of the versions includes a car and the dust cover. Make sure you read the listings carefully to make sure you know what comes included with your kit. My kit did not bring the car or the dust cover, but I made my own dust cover using the measurements from the instruction booklet. This company does not sell the dust cover, for this dollhouse, separately. I, personally, dont care for the car, but you can purchase one separately on eBay, using the measurements from the instruction booklet. This company does not sell the car, for this dollhouse, separately.
Now, let's go through some potential problems with the kit.
There is going to be some minor warping of wood. It did not prevent assembly, but it made glueing parts together, straight, a bit of a challenge. This is true of the staircase and some walls. Remember, it's very difficult to straighten MDF. It is thick and very hard. In the end, the parts did straighten and I had no issues. But, it all depends on just how warped your parts become.
The wiring for electrification is very complicated and there are many areas where wires are visible. Though the kit did its best to try and hide these unsightly wires, there are just some areas where hiding them is impossible. The corner of the wall, which has all of the wires going down to the base of the dollhouse, is filled to the brim with wires. Try your best to hide them with the curtains and other items placed in front of them. The holes on the floors seem small for the amount of wires that have to be threaded through them. So, your wires might be difficult to thread, as they multiply.
It's fantastic that the dollhouse brings a compartment for you to hide the power supply box, but the compartment is small and the power box will not have much leeway in it. Especially when all of the wires are also running along the corner of this compartment to the base of the dollhouse. You have to access this power supply box to turn the lights on and off and also to change the batteries, when needed. This means that there cannot be any permanent items placed in front of this compartment, obstructing your ability to access the power box. So, the swing cannot be placed at the side of the dollhouse, as the photos indicate. You must place it somewhere else.
Having to remove the dust cover and remove an item, in order to open the compartment and switch on the lights, can be a hassle. It would have been better if they would have run the wiring to the exterior of the dollhouse, outside of the dust cover. This is something you can certainly do. All you need to do is drill a hole on the base of the dollhouse, add tabs to lift the base enough, so that the power supply fits underneath. The only other alternative is to not electrify the dollhouse with the wiring provided and find another way to light it, if at all.
The chandeliers of this dollhouse seem out of scale. They look much larger than they should be, but it's not a big deal once everything is displayed together.
I am not too happy with the way the bedroom table lamp was lit. Maybe you can alter the kit somehow to light it some other way or not at all.
The brick paper that covers the base of the dollhouse, is very delicate. It is easily creased, scratched and it is cut way too close with not enough leeway for making the folds completely, along the edges. Best way to fix this is to use acrylic paint and eyeball a color match. That way you can touch up any damage to the base. You will want to touch the base up, because this damaged paper really takes away from the look of the entire dollhouse, making it look as if it has a sloppy finish.
Over all, it's a good product and it will draw the attention of your visitors.
You can visit this dollhouse gallery here.
