I've lived at Colonial Grand at Mountain Brook about a year and a half. Because I am leaving Birmingham soon, I didn't think it was worth my time to move after my one year lease expired. Overall, the apartments look fairly nice and the grounds are well kept.

I live in one of the one bedroom townhouses. The appliances in my apartment are fairly old but they still work. The washer/dryer closet is so small, that if you have a standard size washer and dryer, the doors don't close. They told me before I moved in that they would replace the stained carpet. Never happened. The day the movers were coming with my furniture, the apartment still had not been cleaned. Although, they sent someone before the movers got there.

THe heating and air conditioning units in the townhouses are aweful. During the winter, the downstairs is freezing while the upstairs is boiling hot. I have to keep my thermostat at 63-65 in order to sleep comfortably upstairs. During the summer, forget sleeping upstairs unless you like to sleep in 80 C rooms or like a really high power bill. Cooling the upstairs is impossible.

During the spring and summer, I have a horrible spider problem although they are mostly downstairs. In the spring through fall (think whenever it is warm), I have a terrible roach problem. I was terrified of bugs before I moved in here. The one nice thing is I have pretty much gotten over my fear. I have a friend who lives on a 2nd floor one bedroom and has never had a roach problem. Maybe it is just the downstair apartments' I mentioned it to the office staff when I moved in and they told me it was because of the glue on the cardboard boxes and the roaches were attracted to it. You can't live in a place without ANY carboard boxes around. I found that very annoying. And even after I unpacked, the roaches were still there. Luckily (and knock on wood) I've never had an ant problem. On the bright side, looking at the reviews, I see I'm not the only one with problems with bugs.

Parking is fine and I always have felt safe. My neighbor is fairly friendly as is everyone I've met at the apartment complex. I don't hear anyone around me. Bridgette (I think') in the front office has always been nice although I've found the last guy they hired is a bit of an idiot and rude. I just choose not to deal with him.

Overall, it's an OK apartment. Nothing amazing, but decent. I don't think I would recommend it because of the bugs, but if you can overlook that, then you might be ok.

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