This was inspired by one of my favorite Instagram accounts, from Sandy Weir, who shares my love of Sydney’s more interesting houses (and has published a book as well). I frequently find inspiration for new builds in the wonderful buildings she shares, though some are difficult-to-impossible to accomplish in Lego.

This particular build started from a house called Elmo in Balmain. I couldn’t find Elmo by virtually walking around Balmain via Google Street View, but I did find what appears to be Elmo’s twin for sale on a real estate site, so I had plenty of reference photos and a floor plan to work from. I also used Google satellite view to get a good look at the roof.

There are some features typical of Australian architecture that are hard to replicate in Lego, such as the fancy ironwork used on balconies. It’s also hard to get Australian roofs right using the traditional Lego roof bricks. Lego’s roofs can have a slope of 45 or 33 degrees. Australian tile roofs seem to be some angle(s) in between.

Australian porches and balconies often have a completely different kind of roof, made of corrugated steel with a distinctive curve at the edges. I’m actually fairly pleased with my solution to that.

This house is very large by Lego standards. It’s hinged so that you can swing it open like a dollhouse to see the interior. Now I’m trying a new version in a style more typical of modern Lego builds, where modularity is achieved by making each floor of a building removable.