Easily the largest LEGO model I've created to date, the build above is a minifigure-scale replica of my family's home in Austin. It took roughly a year of on-and-off work to design, weighs about 23 pounds (over 10 kilograms), and contains over 13,000 LEGO pieces.
Aerial view of the first floor's interior
Aerial view of the second floor's interior
Kitchen workspace and pantry (Angle 1)
Kitchen workspace and pantry (Angle 2)
Boys' bathroom
Guest bathroom
Guest bedroom
Fireplace as viewed from the kitchen table
Dining room
Living room and kitchen viewed from the kitchen table
Living room
Design Process
After deciding upon the massive undertaking of creating a scale replica of our house, I started by taking many, many photographs. Various interior and exterior angles were documented for maximum accuracy in the final model.
Then, I got to work building the bottom floor in the LEGO Digital Designer software. Luckily, our ground floor is made up of square tiles which scale wonderfully to LEGO 2x2 tile pieces. As such, I was able to count the exact number of tiles for the dimensions of each room, quickly giving me a map to work with.
After that, it was a matter of building up walls, doors, and furniture in the proper locations, followed by little details which made the house our own.
Once the ground floor was completed, I knew exactly how large to build the second floor and the roof, and they came together organically atop the walls I had already constructed.
A year of work later, I had an accurate digital model as shown here! (With a little blue and red minifigure for scale.) The digital model was completed in July 2023.
Gathering Materials
After finishing the digital model, I transferred it from LEGO Digital Designer to Stud.io 2.0, a more modern and user-friendly LEGO building software.
Stud.io 2.0 allowed me to easily compile a list of all the thousands of parts in my build, and my little brother assisted me in placing at least a dozen orders on Bricklink.com, the go-to site for buying and selling new and used LEGO.
Several orders were from sellers overseas, so we knew we'd be waiting a while before the proper building could begin. I left for my first semester at Texas A & M University, and over the course of that fall semester, my brother sent me update pictures as more and more pieces arrived. (Like the one shown here!)
It took almost all semester for the 13,000 parts to arrive from every corner of the Earth, but finally, they were all accounted for and ready for building.
I let my brother build the roof as a thank-you for his help with ordering all the pieces, while I'd be tackling the house proper once I was home from school.
When I finally returned for Christmas break in December 2023, it was time to get to work.
The Build
With nothing left to do but build, I got started slowly but surely creating the ground floor foundation. It took far longer than building a typical LEGO set, due to both the immense number of pieces, and the fact that there were no numbered bags!
Nevertheless, I pressed on. Four days and six Scream movies later, the model was complete and ready for display!
It would be displayed the following year at the Brick Rodeo LEGO convention in July 2024.
Now what should I build next...
