A traditional kids toy is making for a not so traditional job for one Crozet man, all while allowing him to bond with his son and enjoy more family time in Central Virginia.

Half a million Legos, that’s the overhead for Vince Petrell’s business. He’s a Lego architect.

“I had another business,” said Petrell. “I was looking for something new. And my son came home with a book showing everything you could do with Legos, and I had no idea what you could build.”

After six months of researching online and finding few people were building and selling Lego-based structures as a living, something clicked.

“I have started collecting different pictures and I have about 7,000 different items all keyboarded in my database, in case I need a whale or dolphin I can find it easily.

Certain structures are more time-consuming and expensive than others, for example this 12,000 pieced Lego birthday cake took 20 hours to build. This 30 by 30 portrait with approximately 10,000 Legos costs about $300.

Each click allows him to tap into his left and right sides of the brain.

“I like the technical side, and I have a math degree too, and believe it or not I use a lot more math in building Legos than you would think,” said Petrell. “The cake for example, I had to figure out divisions by 2, 3,4. You wouldn't think it would happen, but it does.

Since he works from home and markets his product online, he could set up shop anywhere. So why did he and his wife decide to move from Georgia to settle here?

“We're starting to get around 40 and we thought where do we want to retire? Georgia was warm. We wanted something that had four seasons, little snow, nice central area to get to easily.” Petrell added, “we felt right at home here. People welcomed us really quickly.” He also said that a great school system, mountain setting and being closer to family in Pittsburgh added to their decision.

So, what’s the challenging part of his job? He said it’s keeping up with inventory. As for the more difficult colors to stock: Pink, white and black.

To check out the Lego items up for sale, go to Pettrell’s website.