The model we looked at was a beautifully decorated, 2-BR honey at the front of the complex. We rented a 1-BR (that ended up being in the back of the complex) and when we moved in we noticed that our kitchen has only --1-- drawer and virtually no counterspace. There are plenty cabinets and cupboards, but having only one drawer really sucks. The eat-in kitchen is large enough for a small table and chairs and one wall is completely empty so that you could put a table and chairs there. This is a criminal waste of valuable counterspace because there is a formal dining room right next to the kitchen. So, we have one small drawer and no space for a microwave AND a block of knives and a spice rack without sacrificing almost ALL of the counterspace but (OH, GOODIE!!) we have room for 2 tables. So, we went and bought a microwave stand and a small table to compensate for the lack of counterspace and drawers and then put them up against the empty wall in the kitchen. Who needs two dining tables but has no use for drawers and counterspace' If you know someone like that, let them know that this is their dream kitchen.
If it can leak, it does. The garbage disposal in the kitchen leaks (there's only 1 sink too, it's not a split sink with 2 basins). The bathroom sink leaks at the knobs and floods the counter. The toilet tank has a slow leak and so the toilet runs for a few minutes a dozen times a day to refill the tank. The water that lands on the edges of the bathtub runs onto the floor and appears to have always done it since the vinyl flooring in the corner is black from the mold growing underneath. We temporarily fixed the problem by lining the entire bathtub with 3 shower curtains to fully enclose the shower. The hot water hook-up for the washer leaks into the wall and we didn't know it until a big dark yellow stain appeared at the bottom of the wall. We called the office to let them know about the leak and the water stain and they sent a young kid with a can of spray paint to "fix" it. We also noticed several more water spots from the pipes above us, one spot runs all the way from the ceiling to the floor and runs right into a lightswitch and an electrical outlet. We turned the breaker off to the dining room to avoid an electrical fire and put a work order in with the office. We haven't heard back from them yet and it's still there. I'm sure that if I call to inquire about it they'll tell me that someone's already been out to fix it or they'll send another teenage boy with a can spray paint. Just think of all those plumbers out there who have been fixing leaks by replacing seals and broken pipes, if only they knew the money they could save by fixing the leak with a can of white Krylon.
The washer and dryer hook-ups are out on the patio/balcony so you have to go outside where everyone can see you in order to get your laundry, which sucks if you're partially dressed or in your bathrobe and need your clothes for work.
Along the back of the complex is a train track and unless you happen to go to the back of the complex while there's a train going by you would not know it was there. They failed to mention this feature while we were here looking at the demo apartment at the other end of the complex. Our apartment has huge sliding glass patio doors and both windows facing the noisy parking lot and the train. Yes, folks, a REALLY LOUD, stinky, diesel-powered train less than 500 feet from your (poorly insulated) bedroom window! This is a real treat if you're trying to sleep or watch TV. It is especially nice if you like to have the windows open when the weather is nice because then there's NOTHING to muffle the noise and the smell comes billowing right in. ...and even if you're completely deaf and can't hear the train, don't worry, you can still enjoy the way it shakes the entire building like a 3.0 earthquake several times a day! The shaking has actually set off car alarms. The only thing that's missing is that there are no streets nearby so thankfully, the conductor is not required to blow the whistle as the train approaches an intersection.
The central air intake vent is thoughtfully placed right outside the bathroom so if someome has gone in there and done what most people do in bathrooms when they open the door and come out the vent will pick it the aroma and circulate it theoughout the apartment. Nice.
The grounds in the front areas of the complex are much nicer than the dirt and weeds we enjoy here in the back. The beer bottles and dog crap that my neighbors leave all over the place really put the 'Oh!' in ghetto.
A month after we moved in they started painting the buildings. Of course, they started in the front and in the 10 mos. we have lived here, they have not finished it yet. So, the front buildings are a beautiful shade of "renter brown" (this is the dookie brown color that slum-lords paint everything so that it doesn't show dirt, that way you can't tell how filthy it really is because even if it's clean it's still brown) and the rest of the buildings are a calico composite of bare grey stucco that has been patched but not painted and the old paint which is fruity combo of pale green and yellow.
The apartment hunting websites show a beautiful pool and a jacuzzi. The pool is suprisingly just about as nice as the picture, but the jacuzzi was down when we moved in and 10 mos. later it still hasn't been fixed. I'll wager that even if it was working, it would either be so filthy or so chemically over-treated I wouldn't want to sit in it anyway. Who wants to soak in a tub of hot filthy water or a toxic mix of pool chemicals that they've dumped into it to keep it from stinking and turning green (much easier than cleaning it!)' No, thanks.
The websites also tell you that there's a fitness center and pool table. The fitness center has 2 machines, both broken since we moved in and the pool table is pretty ratty. If you ask for pool sticks/balls the guys in the office will tell you that the sticks are all broken and some of the balls are missing. They told me they're considering buying some more and charging residents to use them but that hasn't happened yet either.
Parking is awful. If you come during the day to see the demo apartment (which you have to because that's the only time the office is open) you will see an abundance of parking because everyone is at work. In the evening when everyone gets home - forget it. Unless you're one of the first 10 people to get home, you'll be lucky to find a spot anywhere near the building you live in. This complex is out in the middle of nowhere and there is no public transportation. This means that everyone here has to own a car. If you figure 2 adults in a 1-BR with 1 car each, and more for the 2-BR/3-BR apartments, you can average anywhere from 2 to 5 cars per apartment and it shows. The exceptionally poor lighting makes walking from your car to your door scary if you're female, especially if you're carrying groceries and have your hands full. Several people here have been mugged, also something that they didn't mention when we were touring the demo. (besides, who'd hear you screaming over the train anyway)
There are no speed bumps in the parking lot (instead there are these dips) so people fly through here at break-neck speeds, which is 5 kinds of stupid since the streets always end in blind interesections, there are kids everywhere and people are always backing out of parking spaces. If your lucky enough not to collide head-on into someone's car or kid, there are anywhere from 30 to 50 feral cats running around (they tend to hang out close to the open dumpsters). They like to piss on everything including your car, they leave paw prints on your car and will crawl into an open window or engine compartment and go to sleep. A neighbor left her back windows down by accident and a cat crawled in and went to sleep under her front seat. She didn't know it was there and went to work the next morning with the cat in her car. During the day, while the car was parked in the lot where she worked, the car got VERY hot inside and the cat died - literally baked to death in her car under the seat. It was there for a week before she found the source of the smell. It's always nice to see the kids running around trying to catch these cats, which almost certainly have parasites and diseases, and may very likely carry rabies as well.
The driveway for the place is easy to miss and there's only one. The driveway opens up right onto US-1 and is located just before a curve in the highway and makes it a real danger to try to get in or out. The kids wait for the school bus at the end of the driveway and are generally not paying attention to cars trying to turn in or out and are often seen standing on the shoulder of the highway where their parents can't see them sneak a cigarette. If it hasn't happened already, one of these days, someone is going to run over somebody's kid.
I don't know about everyone here, but we have horrific leagues of cockroaches. Most people here have pets and generally leave pet food on the floor in their pet's dishes so there's plenty for the bugs to eat. We have a cat and feed her canned food because she is old and cannot eat the dry food anymore. The first night we spent here I put her bowls down in the bathroom and put a can of food down for her. In the time that it took me to turn around and fill her water dish in the sink, no less than a dozen roaches had crawled into her bowl and covered her food. We have tried everything to get rid of the bugs and nothing works. The websites all tell you that this place features regular pest control. It doesn't. I work days and my boyfriend works nights so there is generally someone here most of the time and we have yet to have an exterminator knock on our door. Even when I call the office and request someone come out, nobody does and then they blatantly lie and tell me that someone was out on such-and-such date at such-and-such time and I know that it's a load of crap because one or both of us was here at that time.
Our lease is up in a little less than 2 months and we're so thrilled to be leaving. We're going to rent a storage unit and take everything we own (except for daily needed items like work clothes and bathroom items) and put it in storage for the next month or so and repeatedly bomb the storage unit to try to kill off most of the bugs that will enevitably try to move with us. We're also going to discard any old furniture items that we can do without because they're loaded with roaches. I know it won't be 100% effective and we'll have to battle the roaches for the next few months at the new place.
We put down a $300 deposit ($150 of which is non-refundable) and I am confident that we'll be screwed out of the remaining $150 so we're not even going to bother to do any extensive in-depth cleaning. Within the first few weeks that we lived here we knew that we were NOT staying after the lease was up so we left quite a bit unpacked and never bothered to hang anything on the walls so the apartment is pretty much in the same condition it was when we moved in.
While apartment hunting on the websites, I happened to notice that they recently raised the rent by $55 a month on the 1-BR. WOW. That took nerve.
On a good note, the office staff is very friendly. You can't believe a word they say but they're very nice while they lie to you.

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