We moved into my mothers split level home last weekend, and while our existing plastic Evenflo play yard was long enough to handle the shape of her living room (which we promptly took over), it was clunky and crooked and wobbly. I actually love that play yard/gate and We’ve had it for months and months, and fully intend to keep it, but my mother wanted something a little less visible and I wanted something sturdier and easier to maneuver over. We had been finding ourselves hurdling over the gate 9,000 times a day, and my moms got a bad hip so ... time to look for something else. I found this gate pretty quickly and it had such good reviews and was such a decent price that I threw it on the cart and had it two days later. I installed it myself in about 20 minutes, between adjusting and screwing and rearranging and whatnot. I’m 16 weeks pregnant w another and I found this gate to be easy to set up despite its possible long length.The way our couches align w a wall allowed me to sort of tension-support One side of the gate and avoid drilling more holes into my mothers walls. The other side of the gate is screwed in but only one screw for each bracket. It’s kind of wedges between a fireplace and my husbands giant keyboard so again, extra holes were avoided. This thing is sturdy and not going anywhere, at least with how we have it set up. We have it extended about 9 feet and there is still two more extensions available to unfold. This thing is huge lol.The bite is nice but I think a wrought iron color or black would be helpful options for this item. There are others out there that do come in those colors but are much more expensive. This one should come in a darker color. I guess it’s always possible to spray paint it?The doorway is not centered to the gate, so it is important to know that if you plan on not using all the extensions. Somehow I was able, through several trials, to get the doorway fairly centered in the opening we blocked off. The doorway is small and a little funky to open and close constantly all day but we’ve gotten used to it and my mom is much happier getting in and out of the living room without having to lift legs and straddle the gate. I have devised a learning technique for the opening of the gate, left hand, right hand to open; right hand, left hand to close. Lol. My son has tried to tinker w the doorway mechanism but has not gotten very far with it. He’s 10 months old for reference. He is not one to hang all over Gates he knows are sturdy so once he realized this gat was going nowhere he has very little interest in it. He is beginning to be a little climber so it’s nice that there’s nothing to put toes in and climb up, as was the case with my plastic Evenflo gate.Be sure to loosen the knobs on all the extensions in order to extend it out. If you didn’t make them loose enough you’ll hear Loud clicking noise coming from that extension and it isn’t a good sound to hear. It comes w screws attached to the one of the extensions so make sure those are there. I took the brackets off the pole to screw them in, pretty much impossible otherwise.Overall, extremely happy with this purchase. We’re here for a year or so, and I fully expect this to last.Update approx. 7 months later: we still have the gate in use. My son is now 18 months old. I have come to hate this gate actually. But I say that only as a parent who is tired of hearing this effing thing clink and clank all day long, step over it all day long, readjust it to be the right shape again, etc. we moved it from closing in a play area of the living room to blocking off two stairways. My son now has free reign to run about the main level, and just blocked off from stairs. He still manages to undo the gate door if you don’t latch it entirely. He also very quickly learned the sound this annoying metal makes if you so much as brush past it so anytime someone does something w the gate (ie: try to sneak upstairs quickly, carry baby sister up while she’s sleeping) he hears it and runs over and is hella triggered by that sound. 1,000% this should have just been made of vinyl or plastic. It did not need to be cheap metal like this. We have also experienced enough rearranging of this gate to advise that if you take it apart to resize it, like take bars out or remove sections... you will never get it to be that way again. A lot of the little pieces that hold the joints together are specific to the section they’re attaching to. They may LOOK like they can be interchanged w other sections and that may be true for some, but if you try to treat this like a watch band,,,removing links,,,, think again. Get ready to hear the thin bars taking every 4 seconds, clanging on the floor, like an alan key you can never keep in your hand. For the first way we had this we folded up the excess sections and held that all in place with a heavy couch butter up against it. The other side was screwed in w The bracket. Eventually we mozied it over to the stairs and folding it wouldn’t work, we needed it drilled on both sides. Mistake. My fiancé lost 10 years of his life with this thing. We got it. But it was a lot. It will not be usable after this, pieces are everywhere in the garage and nothing fits together right anymore. So just keep that in mind. Other wise it has generally stood up to a very active little boy. He knows not to go past it, and he is over the stage of yanking it and hanging all over it. I can’t believe it never ripped out of the wall. We trip over it every day at least once. The little door becomes extremely annoying to open and close so many times so we step over it for some variety and someone always at some point trips over it and you hear the familiar clanging around. I hate this thing snd can’t wait to not need it. I am moving and the house is small and one floor. THANK GOD. It’s a good value for sure it just starts to get to you after a while lol