Little Free Library

I'm trying to think about where I first saw a Little Free Library...I'm not quite sure. Maybe in front of an elementary school...I know there is an empty, eccentric one on Bay Street.

Anyways, I like books, reading, libraries, the places the books take you, the people you meet, and the events you experience, which prompted my desire to charter a book rental in our neighborhood. I went to littlefreelibrary.org to order my information packet, a sign (metal or wood), and charter number for $40. It takes about 3-4 weeks for everything to arrive. The envelope included marketing materials, a bumper sticker, and a button.

I wanted to repurpose something instead of starting from scratch. I liked the idea of a cabinet that already had a door on it. Habitat for Humanity ReStore had a room of miscellaneous doors, windows and cabinets so I found one that was pretty massive made of particleboard. It had been white washed, which served well as my primer.

$5 cabinet from Habitat for Humanity ReStore

I really wanted to get to work on this project. I would bring it outside with the intentions of painting it and I would get interrupted or distracted somehow. Joseph doesn't have a lot of tools or a covered shelter. However, my dad is very handy, has a garage, and a lot of tools. I asked my dad if he could help me so I explained what I was trying to do. 

Using his jigsaw, he cut the center out of the door so people will be able to see the books inside. There will be plexiglass in the opening for a transparent view. He took the door off and I sanded the edges of the opening. It is my responsibility to buy the exterior paint, paint the door, get a handle and plexiglass, while he is doing more cosmetic things like the shelving, reinforcing the back, and the lean to metal roof. 

A bumper sticker mailed to me in my charter packet

I was searching Little Free Librarys on Google and saw a teacher make a free book rental in her classroom and called it readbox, so I thought that would be a good theme for my library. I could actually paint the box red to resemble a redbox. Red and Read are homophones (sound the same, but spelled differently) so it is a play on words! As a 4th grade teacher, I am very familiar with homophones.

At Lowe's buying plexiglass for the door

Picking out "redbox" red

I bought a quart of Valspar exterior Classic Red for $20! I couldn't believe how expensive it was! Then I went to felver design to have readbox logos made for the sides. It took Shawn like 10 minutes to make them and they cost $10 total!

The tri-fold business cards I hung on the mailboxes

The Little Free Library website has a template for stewards to use to get the word out about the library so I made copies to put on my mailboxes in my neighborhood. It took me a couple days to distribute over 100 of them.

Mounting the box on the posts

My two favorite men setting the posts for the library.

readbox mounted in the front yard

So my dad did all the work in his garage. He'd call and ask me questions every now and then and give me an update on his progress. He finished securing the logos and metal plaque at the top. Friday night he brought it over to mount it in the yard. We had the county come out to mark lines so we had approval to dig in the yard without hitting any water, telephone, cable, electrical lines, etc. My dad put a magnet in the door to keep it fastened shut. I covered the box with a King size sheet until the reveal on Monday evening. I do not want the neighbors to see it until then. The kids and I cleaned out our books to stock the library. Hopefully, others will cycle their books into the rotation!

The ribbon cutting ceremony was Monday, October 19 @ 6:00pm. My parents, in-laws, my family, a friend from graduate school, and a neighbor down the street stood by the ditch waiting for the unveiling. I read the "speech" that I had prepared. Right before the ceremony, two people dropped off books to donate to the library.

Young Adult chapter books donated by my friend, Eve Heaton. She cleaned out her classroom library.

A high school friend of Joseph's cleaned out her kids' books because they had outgrown them.

"My name is Rebekah Hayes and our family has lived in Mint Farm for 2 years. I am the steward for this Little Free Library. It cost $40 to purchase the charter for this library. All the libraries in the world can be found on the map on the website. Anyone can use this library. Someone that lives in Mint Farm, or in Beaufort, or just visiting on vacation. The concept is the same as any other library. Basically, if you borrow a book, bring it back or return it to another Little Free Library. If you want to keep the book, replace it with another book. You can donate to the library anytime. If you go to a yard sale or book sale, feel free to stock our library. Help me protect the library from theft and vandalism. Please add yourself to the Facebook group so I can keep you up-to-date on any news: mintfarmlfl


Thank you for coming!" 

Loading it with more books that were donated

The first patron that borrowed a book (Harry Potter).
He came because he got the invitation on his mailbox. 

Lincoln was curious too. Some of those books were his...