MOD Ole Kirk's House (4000007)

[Vee]

I am very biased towards houses and buildings. And I am a Lego fan! So when I saw for the first time Ole Kirk's House, a Lego house with a bit of a Lego history, I was frustrated that I could not buy it. Because it was an exclusive gift to Lego's employees (and also to some tour participants), the current asking price is too high and I thought that buying an original new set was not worthy, considering that the house uses mostly common parts, so I decided to BrickLink it. The only serious part that makes all the difference is the sticker, and it is a cool sticker! Well, no sticker for me then.

Since I was going to BL it, it was a non-original house from the start, I thought, what the heck, if I am BL'ing it, I will then make it a little more to my taste, meaning, I will not make it all red. That too much red always bothered me. So I decided to change the bricks from red to some other color (if you look at pictures of the original real house that inspired 4000007, you see that the external wall, made of real bricks, obviously do not have the same color as the roof).

Soon I decided to change the color of the roof too because I don't like very much bright red roofs. Then, by choosing some not-so common colors, some bricks were either nonexistent or too expensive, so I had to make some minor modifications to the structure of the house, like replacing a 2x8 brick with two 2x4 bricks, so on, but always maintaining its overall structure as original as possible.

I started to buy the parts for the house more than one month ago but unfortunately, one of the BL sellers, the main one that I used for this project, took weeks to ship my order, so only recently I had all the parts to finally start building it. And in the meantime, while I waited for the parts, I kept creating more and more stuff to enhance the house, mostly a landscape around it.

In this thread I plan on showing pictures of my build. Since I am slow to build, it will take time for me to have the house completed. So, as a start, I show you the one picture below. The base of the house!

You can see some differences already from the original.

• I am using a 32x32 green baseplate so I can have more area to the back of the house for some landscape; the original set uses 3 dark bley baseplates that are equivalent to an area of 32x24.
  
• I decided on a green baseplate because I wanted the house surrounded by green, not dark bley; but then, the inside of the house becomes also green, which is not good; that is why I covered all the inside with dark bley tiles, to keep the inside look of the house similar to the original one.
  
• Some adaptations already in the black 1xN plates; I had to "break" the black plates into smaller pieces because on top of them there will be smaller bricks.
  

There will be nothing inside the house, just like the original,. Maybe in the future I will add something, but chances are slim. Too much money already spent on the tiles...

More pictures will come as I build it, but again, I am slow to do my things, very very...

[TheLazyChicken]

Can't wait for more pictures! So far, so good...

[The Architect]

Can't wait for more pictures! So far, so good...

I second that.

[Vee]

I had chosen Reddish Brown for the color of the walls, instead of the original red. I even bought all the necessary parts. But what I always wanted really was Dark Orange. After some thinking, I decided to go for the dark orange. But some needed parts do not exist in dk. orange, a few are too expensive, so this is what I got:

As you can see, some parts were kept reddish brown. Tile 1x6, tile 1x1, brick headlight, cheese slope, 3x3 corner plate, all these parts do not exist in dk. orange, so they were kept red. brown. The plate 1x1 exists in dk. orange but its price is prohibitive, so my solution was to use red. brown where they could not be replaced by something else.

Above a little problem. The color of the dk. orange bricks don't exactly match with each other. You can see two more 1x1 plates that I could not avoid.

The bricks that hold the back door used a few 1x1 plates too, just like the front door, but I rearranged things and was able to get rid of them by using 1x2 plates. Same happened to bricks that hold the side door, no red. brown in that side and no variations in dk. orange color (I guess the 1x4 bricks are to blame...). Detail: the light bley 1x3 tile shown here originally is a 1x1 tile + 1x2 tile. I guess Ole Kirk didn't have a 1x3 back then... All the doors are originally all red. brown; I am using tan (with a detail in dk. tan for the front door).

Edited February 2, 2014 by Vee

[Vee]

And the OK's House is taking shape...

My "everything room", currently acting as a "Lego room" to build OKH..

[Vee]

This is from yesterday, the OKH at the end of Book 1.

The Lego newspaper is all the interior the house will ever have!

I was supposed to have finished the house and then started the surroundings, but I am having a bit of a problem with the addition of a light brick. The mechanism to push the button of the light brick was supposed to work but after I added the rest of the roof, friction between the parts, that I was not counting on, made it stop working so I am reviewing it. Here is the mechanism _before_ I found it does not work well.

While building this house I realized why Lego never made an official (available to the public) set out of it and maybe never will. This house uses some techniques that I am sure would not pass quality standards of today. Some things are not well interlocked. I know, or believe, that this house, as it is, is a faithful copy of the house built by Ole Kirk decades ago. Back then, probably Ole Kirk didn't have all the parts that we do now, so he had to use whatever he had available and at hand. As a piece of Lego history, it is a very interesting and unique house though.

I have changed slightly a couple of things to try and reinforce some parts, even if just a little bit.

[Vee]

House is ready.

I have bricks to make the roof entirely red or entirely dark red. I chose some mix. Since I don't have the sticker, I added a Lego logo.

Another view. You can see the tip of the axle that turns on the light inside.

Pushing the button! The light does not illuminate much because the house is low so no room for the light to spread. But it has its coolness, it brings shine to the transparent plates that are part of the fixed doors.

Next step is to do the front yard,

[Vee]

Front yard is done.

That little guy in front of the house is its owner, Ole Kirk himself!

Don't ask me how Mr. Christiansen gets in and out of his house through those so narrow doors...

My little Denmark flag, born from another thread here, ended up on top of the house.

Side door view.

The other side, complete view.

Final top view.

Next, back yard. But this will take more time, it is a little more "complex" since I have a bigger area.

[meyerc13]

_{Have you considered scattering the roof slopes like on the new Creator Family house (set # 31012)? I think that would look nice.}

[Vee]

Yes, I have. Since I have bricks to make the roof all red or almost all dark red (the very top roof bricks don't exist all in dark red so I chose black to go with the dark red), I have tried, in LDD, many combinations, and scattered was one of them, since I like what was done in 31012. But of all my ideas, the one that looked better for me in LDD was this one, the stripe of red with two layers at the level of the windows. To really know in reality which one would be best, I'd have to try them all for real, but it is too much trouble for now, so I stuck with the stripe. I really am not sure what to do, I just don't want the roof all red neither all dark red.

I will have to disassemble at least partially the roof later and then I will try some new combinations. I didn't like the way the front door is connected to the rest of the house. If you look closely, there is a very noticeable gap between two of the roof tiles, right on top of the front door, and the loose connection there is to blame. I have devised a modification, adding more 1x2 plates with one stud in the center, shifting the roof tiles, to try to make the connections better, but since I don't have the parts, I can't do it now. When I have them, I will then have to disassemble the roof to get to that part.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Vee

[Vee]

First phase of backyard is done.

Both grill area and pond area were "borrowed" from Lego sets. I am not good at creating so I "aggregate" ideas from others...

Next and final step is to add some green at the edges of the backyard.

[Junpei]

Wow, so far it looks amazing! I think the dark orange looks great.

Good luck!

TLH

[Vee]

Thanks, TLH!

Here is the final design of the light brick mechanism. You can see that it uses faithfully your idea with just some minor adaptations to fit into the space. I needed to "break" the axle, to lower its end, because if it went straight, it would collide with a plate. But this was good because then I could use a red 1x2 brick with a hole instead of a dark red 1x2 brick with a hole. I don't have a dark red 1x2 brick with a hole.

.

[Legogal]

Oh my god! You chose dark orange over that horrible red color it came in! What a fantastic choice!

It looks so much better without red walls, and if you can somehow mix up dark red and maybe dark gray tiles for the roof, that might work, too. I detest red walls and roofs and usually refulse to buy anything with them unless I have enough in another non-red color to replace them.

I think that the original house set looked really awful as to color choice, so you definitely made some great decisions here.

And the exterior really rocks. Congrats on such a fine build!

I am think that a tan and dark orange combo with some shade of gray could also work. Way to go!

[TheLazyChicken]

Great work! I like all the great details! Keep up the good work!

[Vee]

Thank you, Legogal, TheLazyChicken! Glad someone, besides me, liked my OKH! :laugh:

...

It looks so much better without red walls, and if you can somehow mix up dark red and maybe dark gray tiles for the roof, that might work, too. I detest red walls and roofs and usually refuse to buy anything with them unless I have enough in another non-red color to replace them.

I think that the original house set looked really awful as to color choice, so you definitely made some great decisions here.

And the exterior really rocks. Congrats on such a fine build!

I am think that a tan and dark orange combo with some shade of gray could also work. Way to go!

I also have strong reservations against too much "bright red". I believe Lego intention was to be true to the original, said to have been built by OKC himself. Back then, he probably didn't have much of a choice for colors. But these days, we have!!

Dark orange was a tough choice because it lacks some important pieces but I managed. Yesterday, for instance, I was looking at the model in LDD for the millionth time and realized that I can get rid of two more 1x1 red. brown plates (they exist in dark orange but are VERY expensive). Here:

It can be made like this:

It will use my two last 1x2 dk. orange plates! The window will be not locked right above it but I will replace the 3 1x4 dk. red bricks that now I use on top of the dk bley plates with a 1x10 dk. red brick (+ a 1x2), so it should be good to lock everything.

With this update, only the front of the house will still have a mix of dk. orange and reddish brown that is impossible to remove. I may one day buy 8 1x1 dk. orange plates (at almost US$2 each, plus S&H) ...

I had not thought of using dk. bley for the roof. Looks interesting.

[Vee]

MOD is 99% ready. Final pictures follow.

Some more views.

Trees and hedge were mostly ideas found in internet that I slightly modified.

The MOD is done but I will still do a few things that will not change it externally. I may later, when it is 100% done, post the LDD file here.

[Vee]

. It starts by showing Ole Kirk's House. One can learn that it was actually his house, the workshop was behind the house. Maybe one day I or someone could make a MOD adding the workshop to OKH.

And there was a duck! A duck that sparked the idea of Lego! Just like in my MOD, but it was not a white duck...

[Vee]

Now I can say that the MOD is 100% ready. After a few changes and additions, it is completely done and I close this one more chapter of my Lego addiction period. I managed to rework the position of and the way the light brick is activated. Before, I had it vertically pointing to the floor; due to the low height of the roof, the light brick would create a small narrow beam that would illuminate mostly a small part of the floor. Now, I have two light bricks, in an angle, aiming at each side of the house, with a wider beam, and I am very happy with the solution. I also added "furniture"... No more pictures but there is a small movie in youtube for those interested.

Cheers.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Vee

[Vee]

I had the opportunity to see the Ole Kirk's house, in Billund.

It was sort of a disappointment, I was expecting to find it in some isolated part of the city but found it right there in the town center, mixed with stores, very near where they are building what will be the Lego House. And the house now is like the end of a much bigger building that it is part of.

Anyway, it closes my short Lego Dark Age nicely ("Lego Dark Age" for me, opposed to what should be the norm, is the time I _was_ addicted to Lego).

Sunset in Billund, Denmark, Easter Sunday, 2014, street where Ole Kirk's house is located.

The "famous" lions in front of what was the Ole Kirk's house, now a Lego museum.

[TheBrickPal]

Wow, this MOD is just amazing. Great work, I say to you!