My mother spent 6 weeks with us and really loved the wall bed. She is 88 and had no trouble lowering or raising it. She would have loved to have these in our house when we were kids. Richard and I are very pleased with the appearance of the finished product. It matches well with our knotty pine bookcase and no one knows what it is unless we tell them. My office looks like an office and when we have overnight guests, we have a place for them to sleep.