Upon moving in this place, I encountered a problem with my background. The report said that I had escaped from jail (not true). Colonial Grand said that I had to clear this up before they would approve me. This shows you that they do perform extensive background checks and do not let child molesters, etc. in the complex.

The apartment I rent is a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 873 sq. ft., 2nd floor apartment. ($659/mo.) They want me to resign for $692/mo., which I will not be doing.

The Complex

The complex is nice on the exterior. It is off of Old Norcross and seems to sit away from the chaos (pleasant hill & satellite) surrounding the area. There is a very nice private park with a tree covered area and a concrete trail which navigates for about 1.5 miles throughout he woods. You can't see a house around you when jogging or just walking this trail. A big selling point for fitness gurus.

I can only write a review for my personal building that I live in. The building in which I live is ethnically diverse. There are a few hispanic families, 1-2 asian families, 2 white families (including mine), 1 caribbean family, and 2 --------american families. The --------- are very nice people but have a problem with noise management. They always stomp up the steps, talk very loud, and come home real late (midnight, etc.) doing those things. They stay on the balcony and talk on the phone till late hours in the night. Sometimes it is hard to sleep because of it. Their co-workers show up in the mornings (4,5,6a.m.) and honk their horns until the person they are picking up comes outside. (what ever happen to cell phones') The asian families are very respectible, and you never hear much out of them. The --------american families are respectible, quiet, and generally keep to themselves. The caribbean family is respectable, polite, and walks (not stomps) up the stairs.

The kids are extremely noisy, but what kids aren't. My wife even found cheese under our doormat for whatever reason.

The noise is so bad, our baby is awoken from naps at least a few times a week. Babies are hard to get to sleep, let alone get them back to sleep.

There is trash everywhere behind all of the buildings. People can't drive or walk to the compactor which is less then 50 yards away. Instead they throw their bags off of the balconies behind the buildings.

I have had numerous problems with roaches. During the summer and fall, they were everywhere. They would be crawling on the stairs, in my apartment, in the parking lot, in the grass,all the time!!! We would see them everyday, everywhere. We are clean people and do not leave food, etc. around. We had to have an exterminator come in. Colonial Grand provided the exterminator free of charge.

The pool, racquetball courts, and tennis courts are extremely nice and fun to play. The fitness room sucks with little amount of space, machinery, etc.

The Apartment

The floor plans are great. My apt. is 873 sq. ft. and I don't feel cramped at all with 2 adults and a baby. In fact, I visited Idlewylde and I felt more cramped in their 1100 sq. ft. 2 bedroom than I do in my current apt. The carpet is horrendous. It is that old cotton-based beige carpet which sucks to vacuum...especially when you have pets. The kitchen is nice. We haven't ever lost cable signal, internet signal, etc. (Comcast for both).

I put the wrong chemical in my dishwasher once and the maintenance guys showed up on time and fixed the issue in minutes. They had actually showed up to fix another issue unrelated and I asked them about the dishwasher. Nice guys, foreign, but nice and knowledgeable.

Management

The staff is young, right up to the manager. They go through these employees like my SUV does gasoline.

I have had one incident with them. My shifter cable on my car broke when I was parked at the front office to pick up my mail. I asked them if I could leave it there over the weekend until World Ford could come and tow it on Monday. I was told yes.

I awoke monday morning, with the World Ford at my gate ready to tow the truck only to find out it had been towed Sunday evening by the office. I raised cane with them and told them they needed to pay for the towing costs, impound costs, etc. After they denied me a few times, I went in to talk to the manager and corporate said they would only pay for half. I thought they should cover all of it but I bent over and took it in the rear anyway.

My utilities bill has been wrong twice. Of which, I had to take care of both of them myself. The utilities provider has been changed once. When I moved here, the complex was called Summer Ridge before Colonial Grand purchased the complex. The complex is under current renovations and is looking nice.

Overall

I would not recommend this place to people with extremely high standards or people who lead quiet lives.

I would recommend it to people willing to pay medium prices for awesome floor plans. The complex had a really great architect. The 2 and 3 bedrooms are somewhat pricey, but nice.

If not for the roaches, noise-level, and incident with the office, I would resign because of the location, park, and amenities. I will not be resigning because of this. If not for those things as well, my rating would be a 4.5. I will rate this complex at a 2.0 because it is in need of improvement to the intangibles of an apartment complex with medium-high prices.

My deposit was only 99.00 dollars, the pet deposit was 300.00.

My wife, who stays at the complex all day and works from home, will be writing a review soon. She is way smarter than me and can write a good review for the stay-at-home worker/mom.

User Responses
From: tnvol1990	Date: 03/01/2007
Well-said (from another current resident)!
From: Danyell_3	Date: 03/20/2007
Thank you this review helped a lot!
From: SeekinginDuluth	Date: 03/08/2008
Thank you very much for such an intelligent review. I totally get what you're saying, and I have been courting the idea of living here. The complex is about 1 mile from my office. As I stated in an earlier response, to see the leasing agent having a verbal altercation with a resident was not a favorable thing, yet I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt; one leasing agent does not confirm a community's worth. After reading your review, which I greatly appreciate, I will look at alternate properties. Again, thank you!

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