Furnished VS. Unfurnished

Hi Ann,

From my perspective, I have spoken with many people who will charge you more if furnished, rather than not furnished, because it costs for the shipping of one's personal belongings to be sent here, therefore a lot of people sell everything and come here with all that can be fit into their luggage, which the airlines only allow an individual to have two of. Plus your carry-on bag. So, for me, I looked specifically for a furnished place, because I didn't have a great deal of money to get myself into a place, and furnish it also.
And I understand, having been given this advice from a consignment dealer here in STX, that it costs even more to have it sent back if you go back to the States, so many people buy only what they need to avoid having to do that. And that suits her just fine, since that's what she deals with, is people's personal treasures and furniture that they just decided to abandon when they left.

Forgot to mention, I have two dogs also, and they love the tile floors we have. Every house and apt. I looked at when I was searching had either tile or linoleum floors.
Most kitchens I've seen have small refrigerators, small stoves, no A/C, if they do it's usually in a bedroom only, and you might want to consider a bug zapper type of repellent, because I've never seen a millipede until I came here, and now there's not a day that I don't see one either in my house, but especially around and on my front door.
Keep in mind also that ticks are abundant here, and each day I have to check my dogs for ticks. And they are inside dogs. Just a heads up.

Our house on ST. Croix.

Our landlady bought a house on 10 acres 20 or so years ago. Our house is on the back of the property, down a long driveway. We're near Cane Bay on the Northshore, but our house faces south -- nice southshore view.

The house is 2 apartments - one up and one down. It is poured concrete construction with tile floors, about 1600 sf. Ours is basically 4 rooms, plus a large covered porch (gallery) in front. We are on the second floor. As you come in the front door you are in the LR/DR. Behind that is the kitchen with normal sized appliance. The kitchen is large enough to eat in.

On the other side of the house is 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. There is also a walk-in type storage area in one bathroom and a linen closet in the other.

The downstairs apartment has the LR/DR/kitchen accross the front and the bedroom and bathroom behind. The rest of the downstairs area has the cistern.

We have no A/C, the breezes on the top of the hill are usually sufficient. Every room has a ceiling fan and we use them on low all the time. Because of humidity it's important to keep the air moving.

We pay about $850 a month plus $60-70 WAPA. We use the cistern water for everything and don't buy water.

Hope this helps.

Hello Ann,

Keep in mind some 'furnished' apartments might have complete living room sets with paintings on walls, dining room sets with dish sets in the kitchen, bedroom sets with sheets and with TV, lamps, rugs ect. and others might have the main kitchen appliances and a few chairs, bed, tables and you have to buy other odds and ends to add. It varies. I've been in furnished apartments that had volumes of Encyclopedias, books, pictures on the shelves, curtains in the windows... and others that were just basic furnishings. No furnished apartments are not necessarily cheaper.

--Islander