The plans were very easy to follow. The end result is solid. Make sure you pre-drill all the way through the board. The template puts the holes very close to the end so the wood can split. If I were to do it again, i'd buy different screws. 2.5" screws are not very long when going through a 2x into a 4x4 for strength. I purchased 3 extra brackets online so that I was able to reverse the plans. This was needed for the swingset portion. All other parts are the same.

We have a decent sized backyard and I wanted a playset that was more than just the standard tower and slide. I looked around at all the major stores and reviews ahead of time and I just wasn't crazy about the pre-stained cedar sets sold by most companies. Plus, my daughter is only one and a half so I wanted to make some temporary customization to make it safer while she is so young. I wasn't sure I would be able to get pre-stained wood to match for the customization with other kits, and a lot of reviews said the boards came in cracked. Cedar is also weighs less and maybe its just my inaccurate perception, but I felt overall it would just feel stronger using pressure treated pine. I know it will fade over time, but at least I won't have to worry about restaining ever. Now that it's built I feel it would be tough to match the strength of the pine vs. cedar. I doubt we could ever put too much weight of people on it. Some cedar sets I saw warned that max weight was 110 lb. The great thing is the plans are very flexible. We were trying to save a little bit, so we dropped some of the 'fluff' accessories that are not part of the kit as the picnic kit, megascope, and a simpler swing (these accessories might be future birthday presents). We also changed the tube slide to be the giant wave slide (that part required a little customization on the frame, but it was pretty easy as long as you buy a slide the fits the same deck size). That saved us probably $500 and made it an easier choice to buy this over a smaller set. The plans are awesome. Everything is broken into small steps. The cutting guide is awesome to make the rest of construction easier by doing that all first. Total construction took about 30 man hours for me, and if you want all your screws to be positioned uniformly and use the screw guide to mark where every screw goes it would probably take closer to the estimated 40 hours. I built the vast majority by myself with clamps to help hold, but you will need 2 more people to help flip up each tower and for some of the steps for the swing set. Keep in mind that this is a big playset and you need a good amount of space to put it. Measure before buying! Also, I hauled the lumber home on an 18ft trailer. If you have anything smaller, plan on two trips or you might have too much weight. This would not all fit in a pickup truck! There is a lot of wood in this. Plans are amazingly efficient and I had less then two 5 gallon buckets of scraps when I was done. This was the first time I ever built something big without someone more handy than me helping and it went great. If you can use basic tools and read easy plans, you can handle this set! When its finished it is one cool playset.