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I'd recently been looking for a new place in Arlington (mostly because VA's tax rate is about half of DC's...), and given the quality of close-to-Metro choices there, I have come to appreciate Van Ness South even more. Whether it's old and shabby-looking kitchen appliances (Crystal Square), or paper-thin walls (Arlington Courthouse Place), or dark and dingy hallways and apartments with smelly carpets (Arlington Courthouse Plaza), it has been very, very difficult to find a place in Arlington, close to a metro stop, that matches the quality of Van Ness South.
Positives:
- Very short walk to Van Ness Metro from the back door exit
- Walls between adjacent apartments well insulated for noise (I have never, in the 4 years I've been here, heard even the slightest sound from neighboring apartments) - it's nice to know you can watch TV or listen to music loudly without bothering your neighbors
- Giant is very close (as close as the metro) and can be accessed without going outside via an underground garage
- Zipcar conveniently parked right at the building lobby (has its own dedicated spot)
- Very large apartments, especially compared to others in DC (a studio here is the size of a typical 1 bedroom elsewhere, a 1 bedroom here is the size of a typical 2 bedroom, etc)
- Apartments and walkways are clean, well ventilated
- Fitness center recently upgraded (each aerobic machine has its own TV and there is a nice set of free weights)
- Kitchen appliances are fairly new and work well
- Good amount of storage space
- Hardwood floors
- Large outdoor pool (though personally I'd prefer a heated in-door pool - ours is only open certain times of the year and then only certain times during the day)
Negatives:
- Van Ness area isn't particularly exciting (doesn't have the quality or quantity of nearby restaurants that Cleveland Park has, for example)
- Off and on ant problem that affects different apartments to different degrees. Seems to be mostly 'off' currently for me, and I'm hoping it stays that way (although I do still see a handful of ants every so often)... When I first moved in, it was a pretty serious problem (couldn't leave a dirty dish out on the kitchen counter for an hour without literally hundreds of ants swarming over it plus I had to throw away food ants got into). There's a sign-up sheet in the lobby for an exterminator who comes, I think, every week, but I've seen mixed results from their efforts (and building management hasn't been very good at communicating whether additional, more permanent efforts are being undertaken to fix the problem)
- Noise travels easily from the apartment to the hallway through closed doors - if I'm speaking at a normal volume in my apartment, someone standing outside in the hallway can hear me perfectly, and vice versa - and if you've got the TV on, anyone who walks by your apartment will be able to clearly hear what you're watching (this isn't a huge deal, especially if you live, as I do, in an apartment few people walk past regularly)
- Fitness center is fairly small for a building of this size (I had hoped, during the Dec. 2004 renovation, that they would be expanding the size in addition to adding the new machines, but apparently not...)
- People at the front desk in the lobby are mostly nice, but the system for picking up packages is fairly poor - on several occasions I've been told I didn't have a package, went upstairs and found out that one had been delivered, and had to walk back down and have them search for it (this seems to be due to mix-ups from using several different sign-in sheets to handle packages - they could really benefit from implementing a simple computerized tracking database of some sort)
- Older (but functional) heating and air conditioning system and old temperature interface (has an often difficult-to-turn knob that makes it a little hard to set the desired temperature with any real precision)
- Parking space costs extra 3mPoZ6gGN6wTPgNi4L2C
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