Glenville, WV—Diana Milam is the manager of the Glenville State College Book Store. That has been her job since May of 2001. Her hobby is building houses. Brick by brick, board by board, room by room, from exterior to interior, from the ground up, Diana builds houses……dollhouses. Milam has spent countless hours constructing, decorating, furnishing, and selling these exquisite houses.

It all started some twenty-five years ago when Milam was on vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. While shopping at the Waccamaw Mall, she saw a dollhouse kit and bought it. She took it home and started putting it together but was somewhat overwhelmed by the scope of the project and never completed it. Instead, she ended up selling

the unfinished dollhouse at a yard sale. Several years later, she came across some stunning dollhouse kits on the internet. They were so beautiful that she ordered one. Her first dollhouse was the Beacon Hill. It took her over a year to complete. “When I received it and looked at what seemed to be a million pieces, I immediately wanted to resell it. I advertised it online on a dollhouse forum and received a reply from a woman who just completed building a Beacon Hill and she encouraged me to give it a try. I have been hooked ever since. I am so proud of my first build. She is a grand painted lady. I still keep in touch with the person who encouraged me to give it a try,” said Milam. Dollhousing has become her passion.

Milam has become so obsessed with building dollhouses that she has an entire room in her Camden Flats home dedicated to her hobby. She has a closet full of accessories, supplies, and dollhouse kits waiting to be built. To date, she has completed eight dollhouses. Four of them have been sold on the internet. Her second build, ‘Willowcrest,’ was sold as a Mother’s Day gift and now lives in Montana. Others brought great joy as Christmas gifts. Any money that Milam receives from selling her dollhouses is reinvested into kits, furnishings and supplies for her hobby.

Dollhousing can be an expensive hobby. Kits can cost anywhere from $30 to as much as $1,000. All the trim and furnishings are extra. Miniature furnishings can be very costly. Milam paid $80 for a miniature stove for the kitchen in one of her houses. There is wallpaper that was used for the interior of her houses that she purchased from England. She has over $700 invested in her most recent build. Milam says there are dollhouse miniaturists who spend a lot and others who don’t. “There are some very talented folks out there who make their own furnishings and can build dollhouses inexpensively, and there are others who collect the higher end furnishings."

Milam is a member of Greenleaf Dollhouse Forum, an online society of dollhouse miniaturists. “This is a community of dollhouse builders and enthusiasts who share everything about our hobby. I have made some very dear dollhouse friends through eBay and other dollhouse miniature sites,” she said.

Although Milam has other interest such as reading and gardening, she spends most weekends engrossed in her current ‘build.’ "I am truly happy when I am building. To me it is much more than just putting a kit together. I am creating artwork, and the kit is the canvas," she said.

To learn more about the hobby of dollhousing, contact Milam at diana.milam@glenville.edu or visit www.greenleafdollhouses.com.