The Story

A first-time home buyer works with a real estate agent from Brick by Brick Real Estate to buy a fixer upper. Luckily, the apartment is only a few floors up from a vintage hardware store that has all the tools and materials he needs to “renovate” his new home. Even the home buyer’s daughter helps by using spare materials to build a lemonade stand to help pay for the renovation.

The Features

Fully featured and detailed three-floor modular building! Includes a hardware store on the first floor jam-packed with detail, tools, materials and antique signs and license plates on the walls. This store is modeled after vintage hardware stores and is just as crowded and filled with stuff as they are! On the exterior of the hardware store, you’ll find several 3D signs, a “classic” soda machine, some raised flower beds, and a makeshift lemonade stand.

Taking the stairs up one floor leads you to Brick by Brick Real Estate, a fully detailed office with waiting area, copier, desk and chairs, file cabinet, water cooler, blinds on the windows and a rear balcony.

Next, up one more floor is the apartment in need of renovation. This floor includes a kitchen, living room and bathroom all in need of repair. The damaged, cracked wall, the leaky kitchen sink and toilet, broken windows and even a burnt-out lightbulb are waiting for you to renovate using the extra elements and instructions to transform the apartment.

Create “moving-in” and “before and after” scenarios, with the moving boxes, furniture including a side table and bookcase built into the “repaired” wall. Use the tools and ladder from the hardware store to create your own fixer-upper scenarios in your city. Even the roof is detailed with an old television antenna and air conditioning unit.

This model is filled to the rim with polish, playability, and detail! It has 7 minifigures and a varied, enjoyable building experience loaded with sub-models and some unique and interesting building techniques!

The Design Process

This is the 4th attempt at a hardware store for me. Inspired by vintage hardware stores, which are just crammed with all kinds of stuff from floor to ceiling, I wanted to design something with a lot of charm and character. I started with the ground floor and at the time had no idea what the above floors would include. I spent a good amount of time getting the storefront details exactly right with the combination of Sand Blue and White. The hardware sign above the door with the arrow is inspired by vintage signs and took several iterations to get something visually appealing and stable.

Moving up to the next floor, I wasn’t sure what type of interior to do and thought maybe some kind of office which isn’t common super common in LEGO modular buildings. I thought a real estate agency would be unique and allow me to include some office-themed sub-builds. The real estate agent could sell the apartment above – perfect!

The original concept just had a plain apartment design, but as I was working in it, I thought it might be interesting to use the hardware store as a source of tools and materials to “fix up” the apartment and then the remaining ideas of leaks, damaged walls and windows came in.

Finally, after loads of street furniture ideas, I came up with the idea that maybe the home buyer referred to the apartment as a “lemon” out of frustration and his daughter got the idea to set up a lemonade stand to help him out. That little stand is one of my favorite parts of the model.

Thank you for taking the time to review my design submission. I hope you enjoy it and I hope it inspires you to create as well. Please take a moment to leave some feedback if you want. I’d love to hear what you all think, and of course, I’d love to have your vote to help me turn this into a real set we all can enjoy in our cities!

Thanks!

Rich