****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
At first, I really wanted to hate this product. I know it might sound funny, after spending quite a sum on what is esentially a wall mounted cat-tree.After about a month of having it up - I love this product.Pros:- My 4 kittens (two 1-year olds; and two 3-month olds) absolutely LIVE in this.-Packed thoughtfully and carefully - pieces are very safe/cushioned.-Quite easy to assemble once you get into the groove of how it works.-Pretty well designed system that I could see being easy to move around/take with you if/when you move.-Was easy enough that I could install it myself, one person, without much carpentry knowledge.However, there are cons!Cons:-Requires you to KNOW your walls! As an apt. dweller in the big apple- this is kind of hard to do. It's not easy to just ask the landlord for a blueprint of the walls I'm particularly interested in hanging this device on. Used a stud finder (a pretty basic one) and even that proved to be inaccurate/difficult. I'm not quite sure if I've secured even all of the shelves in a stud - or if they're evenly spaced apart.-Instruction manual could be more consistent- found some help with walls and drilling pilot holes only on the websites version of the instruction manual that wasn't in the physical manual that came with the unit.-Though two persons aren't necessary, would make the unit much more easier to install in a balanced manner (Since I installed this myself, I know there are shelves that are lopsided or not even....but I feel like it adds to the character of the unit).- Requires some degree of carpentry skills-Metal pots aren't sealed appropriately enough that water will not penetrate. The seams on the black metal gardeners pots seem to be just quickly done and nothing that would substantially prevent water from leaking out of the pots that the plants are in, then into the black holder, and out onto whatever furniture, carpet, or items are underneath it. I would recommend NOT planting directly into the metal pots, but using them as a holder for small plants, and then removing the plants in their plastic growers pots and watering them in the tub - waiting them to drain off - then placing them back into the metal pots. I suppose it's design feature would prevent people that want to saturate their plants- adding weight to the unit, which could ultimately compromise it - so I suppose I could understand why the pots aren't waterproof.-Comes with about 16" extra inches of fabric and not much else (hint: esp. if your walls have studs that are spaced further apart). And NO extra screws. Think about adding a handful of extra screws and a bunch more fabric.
