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Incredibly rewarding and detailed. It looks amazing and you'll learn cool miniature modelling skills along the way. Not for beginners (of any age), but an incredible opportunity for an experienced builder to spend time with a novice. One of the absolute best values.

I got this last year for my daughter for Christmas. She's into interior design but has never assembled a model before. Assembling it together has been a great experience and we've spent dozens of hours together in the processes. She was initially nervous about gluing and cutting but has gotten more confident as we've progressed. Last week she pointed out that we'll probably finish this up a year after we started it.

The description recommends a "3-in-1" bottle of glue. It looks like a lot, but it will be the right amount. We also used regular paper glue in places. We also employed an Exacto knife, a metal straight edge, a cutting board, pliers and a ruler with millimeter measurement (instructions are in metric).

I am REALLY impressed with the instructions. Someone put a lot of thought into them. Beyond the step-by-step instructions, there's an inventory that we've consulted a few times and a few pages that show the actual size of the wooden parts so you know you've got the right ones. The instruction book is 28 pages long and we tend to make it through one page at a sitting. It's poorly translated in places ("attach wire silvery acrodding the picture") but because everything else is so good, this is actually pretty endearing. As mentioned, the instructions are in metric and I'm glad my daughter has had the opportunity to get familiar with that.

The level of detail is knock-your-socks-off incredible. By far the most detailed model I've ever done, and I've done a few. We've had to slice little lemon and watermelon pieces and stuff tiny pillows. Assembling the wooden furniture is my favorite part. We've definitely gotten better as we went along. My 50-year old eyes require glasses for this sort of work. I love the fact that there are 7 LEDs that illuminate the dwelling. I plan to use a larger, 3 cell battery pack to light them a little brighter. Some steps don't work out quite the way the instructions recommend. With a little improvisation, it all works out just fine. For example, we gave up on a few paper-to-wood attachments and rigged some support under the stairs using cardboard.

The music box is a little out of tune on one of the tines. My daughter finds this an absolute gas and makes a point to listening to it whenever we work on it. The music box is a nice touch, but not essential to the model in my opinion. I envision that the family who lives in this house likely listens to something more contemporary anyway.

When I first opened the box I was worried I would never be able to do this but from ready a lot of reviews I knew the best place to start was reading the instructions grom front to back, being the newbie that I was.. also familiarized yourself with the content of the box at the same time. I found that toothpicks, tacky glue, box knife and Elmer's glue and scissors worked best fir me. Elmer's glue is slow drying and makes it easier to glue the papers to walls and floors... drys prettier too! Toothpicks and razor blade box knife were the main tools I used ... razor made cutting out some of the pics much easier to not make a crooked cut. Scissors sometimes made it more difficult on some of the smaller cuts. The directions were fir the most part pretty clear and easy to understand however, for example when they say paste or cut on the yellow line or blue line It took some time before I figured out where the yellow or blue lines were... they are in the picture that they are showing during the part u r working on... I could not see the lines .. same with the cut out papers .. somethings you just have to figure it out but for the most part it's clear what to do.. all my parts were there and only had one broken chair but it still worked.. I found if you make a mistake you can correct it or it's so small it isn't noticeable... I did find that like with the parts for the loveseat and sofa the wood was warped and made it difficult to glue perfectly.. the office cabinets and kitchen had same issue. That was kinda frustrating cuz it will cause your stuff to look crooked or not level. I LOVED DOING THIS AND PLAN ON DOING MANY MORE!!! DEFINITELY DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE OVER 14 AND UP.. IT TOOK ME ABOUT A WEEK OF WORKING ON IT ABOUT 5 HRS A DAY .. IT WAS AMAZING.

This was a really fun project. Took me about a week or so to put it together and I felt so accomplished when I was done! Especially when it came to connecting the lights! I like that it uses AAA batteries as well so I didn't need to go hunting for a special type of battery. I note that some of the furniture pieces are quite fragile though only one piece was broken. Most of the pieces were also stuck together.

I bought this kit as a gift to myself and spent about 9 days building it.
I found the instructions to be clear except for the wiring, which I struggled with a little, but eventually had success. Al in all, a most enjoyable way to spend my winter break.

Pros: Comes with everything it says, including music box and dust cover, even though the instructions kept insisting they weren't included. I found it satisfying to assemble each tiny piece, and also quite modular in that you can easily find a stopping point to put it all away for the day when it's dark and you realize you haven't eaten anything since breakfast and that the reason you can't see to get the glue in the right place is that you need full daylight as well as both desk lamps in order to focus on the tiny pieces. Maybe that's just me though.

Cons: Some of the pieces were alien to me, e.g., the "lampblack machine." No idea what that is so no idea what the final product was supposed to look like. A couple of the components were a little warped or not quite straight, resulting in a more difficult build, but I persevered. I found that 2 pieces were missing from my kit, but again, I was able to work around them. Finally, it's so very Chinese and I kept thinking that they must employ people at slave wages to assemble these kits for us westerners with way more leisure time on our hands... but I looked in vain for an American company that makes kits like this. I'll keep getting them because they're adorable and I have definitely found a new hobby.

Tips: I highly recommend Aleen's Ultimate clear glue for building the furniture, and Aleen's Tacky Glue with a flat paintbrush for the paper. For both, the key is to apply a thin layer to both parts and then wait like 30 seconds for them both to dry a bit.
Also, the non-glossy paper is the entire bill of goods for the project (save beads and cloth)! If I had realized that at the beginning, I would have noticed the missing pieces and might have tried to contact customer service to get them. Mine worked out fine, but in future kits I will absolutely refer to these sheets right off the bat.

TL;DR: A great kit if you have patience, a little ingenuity, and the right adhesives.
Go ahead, get yourself a little something!!

A very beautiful miniature scale house, but unfortunately a lot of the pieces arrived stuck together. This caused the paint to be either ripped off or transferred onto other pieces. I was very disappointed with this as I was looking to display it. I had bought this as a gift for myself and I was pleased to find that it is very straightforward in terms of building. It is pretty easy to complete and the instructions are really good! I hope that the manufacturer can figure this issue out!