Many of you might not know this but Steve helped out in a miniature way with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike relief.  Pictures of his rendition of the Greenleaf Bus dollhouse kit were used online by the great people at miniatures.com to donate a portion of your Greenleaf Bus Kit purchase to the American Red Cross. You can see that slideshow here.

Steve was also the second place winner of the HBS 2007 Creatin` Contest.

You can check out his amazing houseboat entry here.  So you can see why I gush!  He is a great guy and a talented miniaturist in my book. Steve is a mini celebrity to all of us on the Greenleaf forum.

 Steve lives with his better half Madeline in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country in the small town of Marietta, PA.  He is the father of four, grandfather to six, and great grandfather to one. He is retired now from his career at a major flooring company but that does not mean he is not busy. Steve has been involved in volunteer services for the past thirty five years. The last twenty of those years he has been the emergency management coordinator for his town. Steve is still very active in all phases of emergency services and still responds to calls.

Steve is very interested in local history. He serves on the executive boards of two local preservation groups. He owns several thousand photos and often gives presentations on local history. He is also writing a book about it! All of this and he is a cancer survivor to boot. You are my hero, Steve!

It was Madeline that got Steve into dollhouses and miniatures. When they were first starting out, she told him that she used to build dollhouses. One day at a craft store she showed him some kits. He gave her one for Christmas that year. As he was watching her build it he made the remark that he could build that same house from scratch. She replied, “Show me.”  His first project was an outhouse. His only problem was figuring out what materials to use and how to scale it down. Steve has out spaced his house with his creations. On the dollhouse scorecard to date is Madeline: two houses, Steve: 10 houses. Eventually Steve would like to make his passion a business.

Steve is considered a builder in the hobby of dollhouses. He does have some kits but most of his creations are built from scratch. He starts with a rough hand drawing and starts from there. He says that he usually changes the design a dozen times before he is done. Steve likes to figure out how to use different materials in his building. Every day he is always looking at things and thinking “What can I use this for?” Steve, like many of us, does not have the patience you need when building a dollhouse. He hates waiting for paint and glue to dry. He usually has several projects going at the same time.

Steve says that his favorite dollhouse is the always the one he just finished at the time he is asked. After some thought, he chose his Magic Shoppe.

He said it was a learning experience for him. It was a marriage of different shapes and materials. He looked at it like an experiment of what would work and what would not. Looks like it worked! Steve could never pick just one house to keep above all the rest. He has memories of things that were going on while he was building each one of them. I asked Steve what his plans were for the rest of 2008. He says that he is working on the Adams for this year`s HBS contest. Looking at his past pieces, everyone thinks that he will be doing a fire/rescue theme. You are all wrong. He is doing something completely different and new. That is all he has to say on that subject for now. Hehehe