Nearly a year in the making, with just the right fit for hundreds of Lego pieces, Tim Baggenstos of Fairwood created a Swiss chalet covered with flower boxes that earned him the grand championship in Lego building at the Washington State Fair.

The 12-year-old is no stranger to Lego competition at the state level. At age 4, he entered a pizza parlor and since then he has been one of the top competitors at the state fair. But this is the first year he won the top prize, the grand championship, in the division for children 16 and under.

How many Lego pieces are in this 10-inch by 10-inch by masterpiece?

“I don’t know,” Tim says. “A few thousand probably.” He didn’t count them.

For sure he had to buy some extra Legos to finish the chalet.

Tim got the idea for a chalet from photographs his parents, Greg and Bethany, took on a vacation to Switzerland about four years ago. The family is of Swiss heritage. What struck Tim from the photos were all the flower boxes. Flowers are profuse on his design.

Work on the chalet started last October after the fair and Tim is already at work on his next project, a rotating house.

He worked on this year’s entry on and off since last fall, starting with a basic wall and with each part of the house he would redo it until it got “better and better,” he said. The chalet opens on hinges, so Tim also designed an interior.

Tim used his own money earned from caring for his neighbors’ cats to pay for the specialty pieces he needed for the chalet. A $50 prize comes with the grand championship, so he pretty much broke even on the cost to build the chalet, said his mom.

Tim used all his own money to buy his specialty pieces. “We didn’t contribute to that. He spent quite a bit of money. There are really some speciality pieces here that you don’t have in a regular set,” his mom said.

Tim and his mom picked up the chalet from the fair at Puyallup on Tuesday. He won’t dismantle it immediately, but will take off pieces as they need them for his rotating house. “By Christmas, it will probably look like a wreck,” said his mom.

Tim’s birthday is Christmas Day. A seventh grader, he’s home-schooled.

His brother Jesse, now an engineer, also was a noted Lego builder, a reserve grand champion, but he didn’t win a grand championship. One of Tim’s call was to his brother to let him know he beat him. Jesse built a Swiss beer house.

Building with Legos is helping Tim with his own interest in building things.

Tim also entered some of his backyard-grown produce in the fair, winning first place for mini-pumpkins and potatoes and a second place for a 15-pound zucchini. He says is their soil, but Bethany mentioned they also use Cedar Grove compost.

The dahlias he grew from bulbs given to him by his grandmother won second place in his division.