ST. JOHNSVILLE — When Elizabeth Diaz needed a power sander to make light work of a project at her new house in St. Johnsville, she skipped the store and borrowed what she needed from the Tool Lending Library.
A former apartment dweller in Amsterdam, Diaz set out to tackle her first ever do-it-yourself home improvement project constructing a fence around a garden plot and bought rough wood from an independent supplier to cut costs.
Realizing that sanding the wood by hand was impractical, Diaz decided to visit the Tool Lending Library to try to borrow equipment to speed up the task after learning about it on social media.
Diaz said she was greeted by friendly volunteers who explained how to use the brand new orbital sander she borrowed at no cost.
“I thought it was pretty awesome,” Diaz said. “I couldn’t have done it without that sander, because the wood was pretty rough.”
Diaz made quick work of installing the fence. Rain slowed down the process of preparing the soil, but she is hoping to get plants in the ground within the next week or two.
If she has another hands-on project, Diaz wouldn’t hesitate to visit the Tool Lending Library again.
“It’s convenient, especially if it’s a random tool that I would never use again,” Diaz said.
Making it easy for community members to borrow tools when they need them was part of the goal for the Friend’s of St. Johnsville when they opened the Tool Lending Library with 200 donated tools in 2020, according to President Robert Smith.
“We do things to try to improve the quality of life here. It occurred to us that property maintenance is always an issue and perhaps we could lighten the burden by offering tools,” Smith said.
The library got off to a slow start amidst the pandemic, but Smith is hopeful the public resource will catch on since it was moved to a more easily accessible venue in a village-owned garage at 74 1/2 E. Main St. next to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park and reopened earlier this month.
For one-off projects, Smith said the ability to borrow tools for up to two weeks at no cost means that locals in and around St. Johnsville only have to supply their own materials.
“So often you might buy some drywall tools or a post hole digger and you might use it once every eight years, but the rest of the time it sits around rusting,” Smith said, recalling one recent visitor who easily borrowed the pickaxe he needed to trench a backyard gas line.
The Friends of St. Johnsville website features a catalog with descriptions and photos of all tools available for borrowing. Anyone uncertain of what they need can get advice and tips from the knowledgeable volunteers with the Friends of St. Johnsville who have varying areas of expertise and take turns staffing the library during regular hours on Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m.
Among the volunteers is Smith, a trained harpsichord and fortepiano maker with a background in woodworking who has tackled various projects around his own historic home.
“I have a large Victorian house myself which is in constant need of attention. Those of us who got involved in this were happy to share our knowledge and skills in the community,” Smith said.
The friends group hopes to encourage other locals with historic homes to fix up and maintain the structures by making it easier to accomplish.
“I think it’s a learning process. To a lot of people who grew up here the house they live in was Aunt Mabel’s and they’ve known it their entire lifetime. Quite often the fact it is historic and worthy of recognition gets lost,” Smith said.
Since the village of St. Johnsville is a state registered historic district and on the National Register of Historic Places, Smith said maintaining homes can be inexpensive for residents taking advantage of the state Historic Homeownership Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program covering up to 20% of the cost of eligible projects, which the friends can share details on.
“We’re trying to improve people’s awareness of the historic value of their homes and there is a state program that encourages them to preserve it by rewarding state credit,” Smith said.
The nonprofit hopes to host a series of workshops in the future on such topics as reglazing windows and repainting the exterior of homes. The group has also compiled a list of local contractors property owners can turn to instead of tackling a project themselves.
Beyond the ready availability of resources, Diaz said visiting the Tool Lending Library made her feel welcome in the community as she got to know her helpful new neighbors.
“It’s good for community morale basically to be able to know your neighbors and know that they’re trustworthy to take care of those tools,” Diaz said. “Normally that kind of stuff doesn’t happen.”
Reach Ashley Onyon at [email protected] or @AshleyOnyon on Twitter.
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