The Makings of a Miniature Project or 

How Ms. Peggie's Place differs from Home Depot

Have you been to Home Depot? If you are doing a home improvement project on your life sized home,  this chain is the place to go for pretty much all of your needs. Starting from the bottom up, Home Depot is a veritable wonderland of flooring and carpets, linoleum and tiles, baseboards, moldings, and wall coverings. They can fill your every desire for kitchen appliances, plumbing fittings, ceiling fans, lamps...well, the list goes on and on. 

Now, the interesting thing is that Ms. Peggie's Place has all this and more. We can help you with the outfitting of your miniatures project in almost every way that Home Depot can help you with your real home and, in fact, when you take into consideration that our inventory is typically 12:1 smaller per item than theirs, we probably carry more of a selection as well. Home Depot is a fine place, but why go there and wish for something on a small scale when you can come here and find it ready for your final touch?

The big box store has a huge lumberyard and so do we, but ours is compact so you can cover virtual miles in minutes. 

We've got a snappy selection of wallcoverings, and no heavy books to lift!

                                        There's often a box of remnants.

There are tools to make your job easier.

Tools

Glues and adhesives

We also have lots of stuff that the people at the local home improvement center could only dream about. How about beautiful houseplants that don't wilt and never require watering?

And furniture! Have you ever seen a sofa or kitchen table at Home Depot?

Nope, but you can find plenty at Ms. Peggie's Place, along with chairs, beds, desks...anything and everything to make a house a home. And when you want a break from the practical items in life, we have enough food to knock your socks off!

We hope to see you soon!

Michael Sue Nanos, Proprietor

Michael Sue's Tips: How to Shingle Your House

 How to Shingle Your House

I have had the honor of working with some very talented folks, so I'm giving credit where credit is due. Ben, the retired engineer who builds houses to shell stage for me, came up with this great way to apply shingles:

1. Make exact templates of the existing roof out of brown paper bags.

2. Apply your shingles with wood glue directly to the paper. (Remember, paper is made from wood and wood glue will form an excellent bond.) Be certain that you leave a "hang over" on the sides and the bottom edges (not the top). The really cool thing is that when it is all dry, you just flip the panel over and trim off any uneven edges, or make the angle cuts all at the same time. (Use a sharp X-ACTO blade and a cork back metal ruler or a jigsaw.) It's a perfect method. It's fast, you can work on it flat instead of vertically and you have a perfect fit.

3. Apply your shingled panels to the roof with wood glue or wallpaper paste (Yes! glue).

Now for John's part in this. John is my private student and I sometimes have him help with my projects to learn a new skill. I asked him to glue the panels onto the house and to weight them for a good bond (please see Sue's House on my web page). He used wallpaper paste and then  applied blue painters tape where he could. To this he attached weights to both ends of a wire and hung the wire over the roof ridge. Brilliant!

Now, tips from me:

1. Manufacturers tell you to dip your shingles in dye and let them dry on newspaper. Newspaper will wick a lot of the dye off. You may have to do this many times. I suggest that you brush your dye on your shingles after you have applied them to the roof. You'll only need to do it once. Much, much faster!

2. Remember to paint the underside of the eaves and the roof edges before you shingle, so there will be no chance of getting paint on your shingles. Take care to avoid getting glue on shingles, as glue won't accept dye.

3. Cheap weights can be made from fabric and fish tank gravel. Make small pillow cases from the fabric and fill with the gravel, sewing up the open end. These are a must for any workshop. Ready-made weights can be bought at diving gear shops.