This project took a little more time than expected. Being new at this I'm definitely not efficient yet. Sanding and staining took the longest. Though the plans said to put it together in the room then sand and stain, we chose to stain it outside then put it together, so to avoid the mess in the room (renting and couldn't risk it!). That worked well for us. We also added 5 inches to the height so some day it could be converted into a full bunk bed. For some joints we should have used 2" screws rather than the 2 1/2" suggested in the plans, some of the screws went all the way through to the other side. We used key hole plates to attach the stairs to the platform to make it easy to take apart and put together. We also adde 45 degree braces to support the extra height and an extra brace around 3 sides of the bottom which will one day be the frame for the bottom bunk. It worked really well. The boys love it!