You know you are obsessed with St John when...

[liamsaunt]

What is it for you?

I just started thinking about this tonight. My oven is broken right now, it broke 5 days before my last trip to St. John. (just the oven, the range works). It's an unfixable break. So that got me thinking...kitchen redo? New cabinets, new counters? I LOVE to cook, and my kitchen is not only incredibly small, but it's outdated.

But, if I redo the kitchen (optional) vs. just replacing the stove at the same level (needed, house fund)...that cuts into my vacation fund.

I think I'll be buying another basic stove.

What are your "dedicated to vacationing" stories?

[Hawaii]

This is strange but our oven is also not functioning at the moment. I have started a fund for our trip for next summer which was suppose to be this summer but we had some unexpected expenses so next summer it is for our first trip. Anyway, our oven started beeping and reads F7 so we had to turn it off. My husband and I recall this happening about 3 years ago so I think it is the circuit board in the oven and I know that is not the right name but it will probably cost a good amount. I hate to have to pay for this since it will take away from saving for St. John but has to be done with a family of four. I have been addicted to this forum for the past year and everyone has been so helpful. My plan is to make reservations this July/August for next summer but hopefully the oven will not cost much. Thanks to all you wonderful forum people with all your help.

[SOonthebeach]

My husband travels 4-5 days a week for his job, and every time he talks about potentially taking a different job with no travel, I kind of freak when I think of how much less often we wold be able to go to STJ (air miles, Starwood points). We both decide the travel job is better....

[msgcolleen]

We have a vacation fund set aside each year to get back to STJ. . . but, our garbage disposal has a leak and we refuse to get it fixed by using our vacation $$.
Most people in our neighborhood are getting new granite counter tops and pools in their backyard. Not us!
We don't need all that stuff, just great memories on our favorite island~

[bubblybrenda]

Well MsgColleen, it'll make you feel even better to know that garbage disposals are considered passé and environmentally unfriendly. I learned that last summer when I had my kitchen remodelled and hummed and hawed about getting a disposal (I haven't had one in 12 years and initially missed it but don't any more). The plumber told me that newer homes are not being fitted with disposals. So if that makes you feel any better you can just let it go and head on out to STJ.

[mbw1024]

oh we talk about the kitchen quite often .... nothing ever materializes!

[msgcolleen]

I feel so much better now! Thanks Brenda~

[augie]

We have just recently discussed out loud a decision that we apparently made a long time ago to funnel most/all of our discretionary income to support our STJ habit!

As much as I might like to have updated rooms/furniture/floors, a nicely manicured and attractive lawn, etc. I don't think I would enjoy them enough to make up for not being able to refresh our souls' batteries in paradise.

[PA Girl]

We have a getaway cottage and the stairs leading to the backyard a nightmare. It is amazing that no one has fallen down them yet.

Well, part of the reason we WEREN'T going to STJ this summer for our 15th anniversary was because these stairs need to be replaced. If we are replacing them, the entire concept to that entry needs to be addressed, which spiralled into a deck.

STJ in 35 days and another year taking our chances on the back stairs!

[TouristTrapCheryl]

.
   I think it's so cool that you all love St John so much
that you are remodeling your homes with "St John" flair.

Here's some tips on achieving authentic "St John" style around your home:

• • Brace up those stairs with cement blocks.
  • Un-hook that disposal and replace it
  with a PVC pipe that goes from your kitchen sink
  across your yard and drains into your garden
  (mine does, and where it drains tomatoes, red peppers
  and cantaloupes grow even though we've never planted a single seed)
  • The remedy for a broken oven is to rework your menu and
  leave off any thing that has to be cooked in an oven.
  If ya' gotta bake something for an event, get a bottle of rum,
  a 6-pack of coke, and find a friend with an oven.
  (No need to get the lime, anyone responsible enough
  to have a working oven will probably have a lime.)

    Both my fifteen year old nephews spent one summer with
me. They live in a gated community, in a "Mc Mansion",
in Naples Florida. I was afraid that my rag-tag island
shack would be too much for them to handle. First
night with me as I showed my first nephew around what would be
his home for the next seven days. I showed him the 2 dish tubs
in the sink, "We wash the dishes in this fisrt tub,
rinse them in the second tub. Tomorrow we use the
rinse water in tub number two as wash water. We water
the plants with the wash water from tub one. And at
night we cover both so no moths fall in an
accidentally drown." I finished by saying "That's how
we do it down here." I waited for his
acknowledgment of the instructions I had just given
him, and I worried that the dish tubs may be off putting
for a kid whose never lived in a home without a
dishwasher. It was so cool when he looked at me and
said "Aunt Cheryl, that's how everyone
should do it."
   I did manage to throw him off his game him with my ice cube trays.
He was like, "Hey Aunt Cheryl we're almost out of ice!" I was like "Use
the bottled water when you fill them." I went in the
kitchen a few minutes later and when I found him
struggling with this task I realized, he'd never used
an ice tray. All his life ice cubes came from a
dispenser in the refrigerator door.
   The following year I got his brother with my phone.
I asked him to call his mom for me. As I came in the room I
saw he was looking at the handset of the phone. I said
"Oh, do you know how to use that phone?" Still looking
at it he said "I think so." then he started pressing the
numbers, to no avail. It's a rotary dial phone. (First thing when
his mom asnwered, he says "Aunt Cheryl has a weird
phone.")

I'd like to let you know that I grew up a true prima-donna.
At fifteen my family home not only had an elevator and
a tennis court but lights on the tennis court and a
ball machine. I got my first car when I was sixteen, a
red Corvette and my own platinum Amex card at
thirteen- a point of contention since I wanted a black one.
THE ONLY REASON I mention this
little known aspect of my background, is to GIVE YOU HOPE!
If, when I describe my life now, on St John, you
think "I could never live like that." you're wrong. If
I can make the transition from living a life that was
not flying coach till I was thirty & going down Lombard Street
in a private chauffeured stretch limo the
summer I was away from my family, training with The
San Francisco Ballet... If I can learn to love living
like this, ANYONE can.

I wasn't quite Veruca Salt, but I was close...

Ooh, ooh: Another heeeelarious moment with my second
nephew was teaching him how to hang laundry. When he finished, he
told me he was a "beast on the laundry line." (I think
that was young person vernacular for "Very good at it", which he was.)

[SOonthebeach]

Cheryl- I love it, I love it! You do give us hope! Not that we live like you grew up at all, but I would SURE like to live like you do now- and have my kids grow up that way. Sounds like perfection- non-drowning moths and all.... Can't wait to come and visit you guys in August!!

[Pia]

Cheryl - love, love, love it

Pia