Showing posts with label Hardware Store. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hardware Store. Show all posts

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Lego Haul - 4/26/16


I just got the other half of my Lego order in the mail Tuesday.  These are the pieces I selected from the online Pick-A-Brick.  I ordered just enough bricks to bring my order up to $75 bucks, but I got a nice assortment of bricks to help me finish off a few buildings.

The bricks I got from Lego's online Pick-A-Brick

As I did with my previous haul of bricks, I'll run down the list of the buildings I will be using them for.
  • Grocery Store: The white 2x12 plates and 2x4 plates are for the final layer of bricks for the store's walls.  The white 1x3 and 2x3 plates are for the dairy case, where the milk and orange juice is stored.  The green 1x6 plates filled in a gap in the back wall where the meat department is.  The brown 3x4 boxes will hold fruits and vegetables in the produce section.  With these pieces, I'm done with the building itself and most of the interior.  I just need to organize the bakery area and put in a shelf for processed products, like cereal and chips and such.
  • Hardware Store: The 2 red and 1 brown buckets are for inventory, but I'm not sure where I want to put them yet.  I'm on the fence between putting them inside or outside.  The white 1x6 and 1x8 plates are for assembling a backboard for a basketball hoop.
  • Hospital: The blue 2x4 plates will go to finish building the walls.  I just need more 2x6 and 2x8 plates to finish it off.
  • Islanders: The three white 1x4 bricks are for the picnic tables.  This building is now complete.
  • Marina Office: The dark stone grey 8x8 plate is another piece for the dock outside the Marina Office.  I still need 5 more to finish it off, then people can start renting boats to take out on the ocean.
  • Pyramid Nightclub: The yellow 1x8 plate and 1x2x2 corner plate are for the walls inside the nightclub.  I built the DJ booth into the wall, so I used these plates to level things out.  I still need a 1x3 plate to finish it off.
  • Watch Tower: The dark stone grey 4x8 and 6x8 plates are for the floors in the Watch Tower.  With the former, I finished off the second floor.
  • Winter Cottage: The white 4x8 plate was the last one I needed to finish covering the yard with snow, so the kids can play outside.
I need some more parts from Lego's online Pick-A-Brick.  I didn't order a door for the Grocery Store's dairy case, because I mistakenly thought I had one already.  I really need to verify what I need before I order parts online, but oh well.  I had fun regardless while putting my parts together.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Greenhouse

Last week, I wrote about the Hardware Store, which has all the tools and elements you need to decorate the inside of your house, but what about the outside?

The Greenhouse, along with outdoor decor products

The Greenhouse occupies the lot next to the Hardware Store.  It's got the landscape materials, patio furniture, and gardening materials you need to get your yard ready for the summer (I'm starting to sound like a Home Depot commercial, aren't I?).

The various landscaping supplies and plants available

The greenhouse, holding most of the flower for sale, is what inspired me to build a Hardware Store in the first place. I challenged myself to assemble it with the Lego Digital Designer.  First, the walls, then a roof, and finally a series of tables inside to hold all the flowers.  After I completed it, I built a store to support it.  I added the garden outside with trees and other garden products.

 Outdoor patio furniture (left) and flowers inside the greenhouse (right)


This is how you can come up with your own models.  Dare yourself to sit down and assemble a building or a car or a device.  You can do it, I believe in you.  And one day you'll have your own Lego city too.

C'mon down to Johnson's Hardware and Home Garden Center!!

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Hardware Store

Last May, I wrote about the two houses I have in my Lego city so far, the Apple Tree House and the Family House.  And now that spring is upon us, it's time for some upkeep to get everything fixed up, planted, and whatever else home improvement stores tell us to do so we buy their wares.  I figured, why couldn't the Lego people do that as well?  If I gave them a Hardware Store, they could also get ready for spring.

The Hardware Store

This will be the first in a two-part series, focusing more on things to go in and on the home.  Stay tuned for the next scheduled post that will emphasize the outdoor section.

This is the first building I put together and filled up from scratch, instead of using existing sets.  Store employees are from various sets with minifigures dressed in a red shirt and green overalls.  I know it doesn't really match up with the yellow green bricks used in the building, but since there were a good number of people all wearing the exact same thing, the red/green uniform would make it easy to identify employees, should a customer need assistance.


A customer buying a broom

The inside part of the Hardware Store has tools, storage containers, paint, and doors and windows.  I thought this would pretty much cover the basics.  One glaring omission right now is the lack of plumbing equipment, but I'm setting up a separate business for handling those items.


Tools (left) and storage containers (right) for sale

For tools, I have the basics: shovels, brooms, hammers, wrenches, axes, pickaxes, crowbars, and power saws.  That's a pretty good selection  As for storage containers, I have drawers, cabinets, boxes,, barrels, and trashcans.  I was able to put all of that on a single shelving unit I constructed that sits against the back wall, out of the way so it does impede foot traffic through the building to the outdoor section.



The paint selection available (left) and paint cans (right)

Paint was a must for the Hardware Store, in case no one likes the colors of the houses I had constructed.  I took a 2x2 round brick and added a 2x2 medium stone grey tile on top as a lid to assemble the cans.  I've got a wide array of colors available across the Lego rainbow, so the residents are sure to find something to their liking.



A woman is looking at window shutters with the store employee.


The front right portion of the store is devoted to new doors and windows for those that may want to build a new house, or do some major remodeling of their current home.  I've also got some sample fences right next to it, in case anyone is looking to buy those.



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Lego Haul - 3/10/15

This past weekend, I went on BrickLink, a great site for the secondary market of Lego bricks and sets.  I could write a whole post on why it's so awesome (and I will).  It has a much bigger selection of pieces than Lego's Pick-A-Brick wall for lower prices (if you don't mind used bricks).

I'm at a point where I'm going to make better progress on my buildings going to resellers than I will buying directly from Lego.  I bought from two vendors, Brick Art and 1 2 Many Bricks.  Between the two, I spent $27 on nearly $35 worth of pieces, some of which I can't get from Lego at this time.

The first order was mostly blue 2x6 and 2x8 plates for my Hospital.  The little black clips are for holding tools at the Research Lab, the blue door frames are for the portable toilets at the Construction Site, the stairs and 1x8 Technic brick will be in the Laser Tag Arena, the gray set of bars will complete the jail cell in the Police Station, the brown plates are bases for tiki torches at the Islanders performance area, and the white plate is for a whiteboard (location to be determined).

Bricks ordered from Brick Art

The second order was the better of my two scores, IMO.  I got 16 8x8 dark stone grey plates, which cost $1.10 each from Lego, only ran me 41 cents each used.  Half of them are for my Watch Tower, while the other half are for the Marina Office.  The other dark stone grey plates and the black stairs are also for completing the Watch Tower.  The Blue 2x6 plates are for the Hospital, the black plate is for a television at the bar in the Restaurant, the black fences are for the Laser Tag Arena, and the two white pedestals are for tables on sale at the Hardware Store and Greenhouse.

Bricks ordered from 1 2 Many Bricks

If I had bought these bricks, they would have cost me $28.50 PLUS shipping.  The BrickLink orders were less than $27 for everything, including the shipping.  It's like I got free pieces out of the deal.  The black fences, the stairs, the white pedestals, the blue door frames...  It was all a bonus.

You can wait for things to happen, or you can MAKE them happen.  I could have waited a lifetime to buy these parts from Lego.  I don't have that kind of time.  I need to finish up my Lego city now.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Lego Haul - 2/7/15

Last month, I finally broke down and decided to use my Lego VIP points to order some bricks.  I had 900 points, which is worth $45 worth of store credit.  I spent $35 on the online Pick A Brick to get pieces I needed to complete various buildings in my city.

Online Pick A Brick elements I purchased

Online Pick A Brick is not cheap.  Larger bricks, like 2x6 and 2x8, can cost 50 cents a piece, while large plates, measuring 6x16 and 8x8 can cost a buck or two.

As you can see, I got a lot of gray and brown bricks.  They never show up on the wall in the MOA Lego Store.  The wall there goes through so many brighter colored bricks that there just isn't any room for the things I want.  If I had been lucky enough to find all these bricks on the wall, I could have fit them all in a Large cup with plenty of room for more bricks.

The bricks I ordered helped me put 13 buildings together: Auto Repair Shop, City Services, Grandstand, the Police Dock at the marina, Research Lab, Restaurant, TV Studio, Barracks, Delivery Services, Greenhouse, Stables, Watch Tower, and Pony Farm.

30312 Demolition Driller bag and assembled contents

I spent $35 on the online Pick A Brick so I could get a 30312 Demolition Driller free with purchase.  It's a great addition to my Construction Site and City Services buildings.  It can drill holes in roads before they can be patched up, or on a construction site for setting up electrical wiring (I don't know, I never worked in construction).

I made the order on February 7th and got the Demolition Driller a week later, on the 14th.  The assortment of bricks didn't come until the 27th, since they were shipped from Poland.  The anticipation of the Pick A Brick portion of my order killed me, but I had so much fun putting all my bricks in place.  Especially the Watch Tower, since I completed a whole floor and started the next one below it.

The variety of the online Pick A Brick was lacking, so once I build up more VIP points, and when Lego expands their selection of pieces, I'll put the trigger on more bricks.  Stay tuned, sports fans.