HAMMOND TOYSWood Bird House Kit Complete with Nails Build it Yourself

Nails. That's the problem here. Nails. The two sides go together just fine. The complications start when you move to assembling the floor and roof. See, when assembling the floor you need to balance the birdhouse on the peak of the roof. And it wiggles as you try to gently tap in those teeny-tiny nails without bending them. The roof is a similar predicament because you're working at an angle.Because of the movement assembling the floor I needed to "trim" up one of the floor boards to make it fit. I do not have a functioning wood shop. I was able to find a hand held belt sander. Hey, a kid is never too young to learn the wrong way to use power tools, right?After bending more nails than I care to admit, I experienced a fit of rage and loaded the kid into the car for a trip to the hardware store where we purchased some #4 3/4" screws and a bit to make pilot holes. The remaining four boards went together faster and better than all the others.It's a good kit, but learn from my experience. Throw out the nails and just go buy screws and a bit to make pilot holes. No point making things more difficult than they need to be.All that being said, my daughter had a great time helping build the thing and even more fun getting it all painted up and "ready for the birdies to have thier chicks."

The kit is fine but I ordered two and only one came complete. The other was missing shutters, perch and brads. Not a huge deal, but still a pain on an afternoon when I expected to have an activity for my kids. I'll pick up brads and cut shutters and perch for the next birdhouse-making session.Fit on the pieces isn't exact, but that's ok. I put one together yesterday with a pair of 4-year-olds. With their "help" it took 1 hour to glue, nail and stain. If you're doing this with kids, glue it up and then let them hammer in nails and stain. You might want to do the nails on the bottom yourself as those are the ones the kids will struggle with the most. If you're doing this yourself, you can probably skip the glue. It knocks together quite easy.I contacted the seller yesterday about missing pieces. I don't see any message from them, but maybe I missed it. I'm not actually sure where those messages are supposed to show up in my info stream.UPDATE: I came home to the missing pieces in my mailbox. I'm glad to have them, as I will use the pieces on the second birdhouse.

This is a cheap product both figuratively and literally. The quality of the product is directly related to the low cost. The wood slats are too thin and split almost every time. Tip: Drill small holes in the slats to let the nail go through without splitting the wood. Some of the slats are curved leaving gaps and almost no two slats are cut to the exact same length. This is a fine product for working with small children if you drill holes through the slats to keep it from splitting. The finished product will not be a long lasting bird house. If all you want is a low cost kit for a few young kids then this is an acceptable product. If you want decent looking bird houses for your yard, this is not for you.

This kit is very easy to use and you can complete the bird house in half an hour. The wood is very soft, though, and I am not sure how long it will last outside. Constructing the roof was a bit of a challenge as it was hard to get the boards for the roof to line up well.

I bought this as a project to do with my six year old. It's a decent size birdhouse, but the pieces are very thin. They are about the length of paint stirring sticks, but not as thick. Several pieces cracked as the nails were being driven in. We were able to fill the cracks with wood putty and lightly sand it before adding primer and paint. We are hoping the additional work will help to at least last the summer. I wouldn't recommend this birdhouse. We were able to salvage it, but with a lot more effort and time than the finished product was worth.

Good product however if you do not drill holes the wood splits

hole too large for wren. smaller hole and bird can enlarge slightly to their desired demensions.I fear sparrows would take over with original hole.I plan to cover part of the hole to make it a little smaller

This was bought for my 4 year old son to paint as a gift. We put it together, it is not quite square and there is nothing to hang it by or attach it to so you have to figure out how to hang it from a tree. Other than that, it was a good buy!