To begin, I'm a 72 year old woman and I just finished putting this thing together, sans hinges, in about 2 and a half hours, by myself. I don't recommend doing this on your own, but my dog was of little help so I soldiered on. This is not fine furniture, but for the price, it's pretty good. All the pieces were there and in good order, it says all you need is a screwdriver and the included hex wrench. Wishful thinking.First of all it's heavy, and I'm no spring chicken. I decided to assemble it on my pool table as opposed to the floor in the garage/shop. That kept me off the floor, at least, but created some other problems. Since there was no one to steady it and keep the sides from falling and ripping out the screws I resorted to wood clamps to keep it squared. That helped a lot, but the clamps got in the way at times and had to be moved around. Still it was the best solution when you can't phone a friend.That worked great until it came time to put on the side piece. You must put the bench top on first, into these tight little holes. With no one there to offer resistance, and to keep from pushing the bench off the table, I had to use more clamps for it to push against. With a mallet I was finally able to get the top into the holes on both sides and screw on the sides. I can't begin to explain how difficult this was. I used books to support the top to keep it from falling down and to help align the holes. It wasn't perfect, but you do what you need to with what you have on hand. Eventually I had to turn it on end on the floor and whack it with a mallet to get it to go together. Don't ask me how I did it, but I got it there without ripping out the screws somehow and it all popped together. Clamps kept it there until I could put in the necessary screws and tighten everything up.I did lay the piece on the floor to screw on the back, lined it up and held it in place with clamps. To keep it from falling forward I used big clamps as weights to counter balance it. The holes didn't exactly align well, and it was difficult to get the long screws started into the arms. I resorted to a drill and making my own starter holes, or I'd still be there cursing.Putting in the bottom was a piece of cake! By the time I was done my hands and fingers were bruised from that little hex wrench. It's not that easy to use and is hard on the fingers and wrists. I still need to tighten up a few of the screws to make the joints fully closed, but my fingers just gave out. It does feel sturdy and looks pretty good. I didn't put in the hinges, which will keep the lid from falling on a child or on your fingers, but I just ran out of steam. Maybe tomorrow, I don't have any kids to worry about and I don't think the dog will try to open it.Picture 3 shows my effort at attaching the lid, eventually I had to resort to upending in and hitting it with a mallet. Picture 5 is without the back, and I was very tempted to leave it at that. My collection of tools is on the table. picture 6 is attaching the back on the floor, using clamps to keep it from tipping over. In picture 7, on the right is what it tells you that you need...hex wrench, screwdriver, and instruction booklet. On the left is what you really need, including Ibuprofen and bandaids. Picture 8 is the finished project and picture 9 proves that I lived to tell about it.I give it 4 stars overall. For the price it's probably 5 stars. Putting it together would be a lot easier if you had someone to help hold it up, doing it alone was a real challenge. I took off a star to make up for my aching fingers, hands, back and neck. But I did it, so I'm happy.