I spent three months checking out apartments in the Boulder area and I took the reviews on apartmentratings.com very seriously. Thankfully, one of my friends lived in the area and helped me sort through the major issues from the minor ones.

Here are my pros and cons:

1. My apartment comes with an attached garage (no leaks in mine). It's more than enough for my car, plus it has a separate storage area that is probably about 3x8. The apartment is also outfitted with a full size washer and dryer which were clean and in working order.

2. The pigeons are around, there is definitely poop on my deck, but it's not plastered all over the place. This is not an Alfred Hitchcock movie. They hang around the roofs and I can hear them coo-ing but that's about it. The management is still working on spikes and fencing to manage the issue.

No one seemed to mention the rabbits and field mice. They're around too. My first week in, a mouse had made its way into my pantry. The complex has a contract with a pest control company that's here every week (they "treated" my home which meant they baited the mouse with poison, and let me dispose of its remains once I found it lying comatose on the foyer floor).

3. During my first month here, I heard about six/seven planes go by. It's really not that noticeable unless they're flying really low.

4. I live on a top floor and have a corner unit and cannot hear my neighbors at all. I've never even seen them!

In the afternoon, the sun shines directly into my apartment,and my guess is that summer is going to be brutally hot. But, there was always a chill in the air during the cold nights and I found I had to crank up the heat.

The floors have a bend in some areas and I've had to jimmy a couple bookcases so they'll stand up straight.

5. The management is fine. They are occasionally busy trying to sell to new tenants, but for most part, whenever I need something, they respond immediately. Same for the service crew, they are very friendly and seem to be on top of things.

6. The dumpster can be a free for all. I've seen it overloaded once, and tenants just left their trash bags around the dumpster, instead of in it. The good news is you can't see the dumpster. They've built a "house" for it. Maintenance does a decent job keeping up with it though.

7. The clubhouse has two entrances, one closer to the gym which has treadmills, ellipticals, a bike, stairmasters, a handful of machines and free weights. Some of the equipment is outdated, but everything still works. The sauna and bathrooms looked clean. The pool looked fine. The second entrance is closer to the library - very nice, quiet - and the business center which has a couple of computers and a copy machine from what I could see. I couldn't get into the business center - the door was locked and I didn't have a key to open it.

8. Location, location, location. The complex is in a beautiful setting - views of the mountains, great landscaping, professional environment, minutes from shopping, restaurants, banks, gas stations. It is unbelievably convenient to everything. 10 mins to Boulder, 20 min to Denver.

I hired a professional cleaning crew, Denver Housekeeping, that showed up at my apartment the day I was scheduled to move in and did a really thorough cleaning. I would recommend that. The management said they had the carpets cleaned, but there were still dark spots from past tenants, and specks of paint from when they touched up.

All in all, I've been both pleasantly surprised and mortified during my first few weeks here. It all depends on what you are OK dealing with, and what you're not. If I can get the mouse situation under control, I definitely see myself living here for a few years.

User Responses
From: lindarach	Date: 03/17/2009
this was very helpful

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