This ice house was fun to build. The pieces are small but the directions are easy to follow. Laser cut wood is the easiest to work with and I prefer it to cutting my on my own. I didn’t follow the directions exactly but it stated that you can do things differently if you want to. I used a white paint for the walls and then a gray wash to give it a weathered look. The platform was more difficult and I basically winged it. It came out very nice. I used a brown wash on the platform. This building is great for a siding.