The time from ordering to shipping was very reasonable, and so was the price. I ordered two of them, because my two European Starlings don't get along. I don't know how the birds will like it yet because I have yet to furnish these and move them in. I won't use the ladder but parrots I'm sure would love it.
The instructions were diagrams only, no verbal instructions. I was able to figure out how to put it together from these diagrams plus the already drilled screw holes and a pencil line here and there. I'm not saying it was easy, but I did it! Of course the second one was much easier once I had it figured out. I assembled both in about 4.5 - 5 hours. I think handy tools to have on hand would be a pencil, if you want to mark the wood with the letters and numbers when you are first figuring it out, and for marking holes maybe when you put on the door hinges,, a small and medium sized Phillips screwdriver, a punch and hammer for making screw holes. For the most part, the screws go in very easily. I only needed to make pilot holes for the small screws on the door hinges.
I think it's well designed and attractive. I'm not sure it's heavy enough to have birds in it outside 24/7, if I were to put birds out 24/7 I might put a bigger, sturdier metal cage around it because in my area we have mink and I know a person who lost a lot of birds in aviaries to mink who were in permanent wood frame cages with hardware cloth that he built. And I've seen Racoons claw apart really well built wooden structures to get at birds. I would feel comfortable putting my birds in these outside for the day if I was out in the backyard with them, or with them off and on so predators would be staying away. And I'd build and add a wooden box for them to get into just in case something grabs at them. European Starlings adore hanging out in boxes some of the time so I'm going to build them a couple anyway even though I will be using these indoors for the time being. But I'm not an expert.
I was attracted by the appearance, and value for the size. They are also lighter in weight than I expected for the size. Some of the wood is somewhat soft which lets the screws go in easily, making it pretty easy to assemble. That's ok for housing starlings, because they do not chew like parrots do. I am very happy with these so far!