Townhouses not bad, but pricey
From:
bostonben
Date posted:
6/19/2005
Years at this apartment:
1998
-
2005
I lived in WG for about six years, and my
experience was much better than most of
the reviews here. First of all, I was in
a townhouse, and the townhouses are much
nicer than the apartments. The townhouse
section of WG is somewhat separated from
the apartment buildings, has fewer people
and gets less traffic. There seem to be
more families than singles, with a lot of
young children. This meant summer afternoons
and evenings could be a bit noisy, but everything
quieted down once darkness fell. I can't recall
being awakened by noise more than once or
twice in six years (and that was some jerk with
an unmuffled motorcycle). Townhouses near the
train tracks might get more noise than I did.
Like the apartments, the townhouses are fairly
old, and the walls thin. Get an end-unit if
you can, so you only share one wall with your
neighbor. Their condition seems to vary quite
a bit: mine had wood floors in decent shape and
a new-ish kitchen, but noisy plumbing and heating
and a truly slapdash paint job. The plumbing, heating,
and air conditioning all worked fine for me, though the
upper floor retained more heat than the lower, and
(as noted in another review) you do share your water
heater with the adjoining townhouse. Neighbors I've
spoken to over the years had beat-up floors, roof leaks,
bad air-conditioning, or bug problems. Unfortunately,
it's very difficult for you to get a look at the actual
townhouse you'll be renting, as the office staff much
prefers to show just the model (which, of course, has
never been lived in and is much cleaner than your actual
unit). Generally, I found the townhouses shabby but
comfortable.
There's plenty of parking, and I never had
a problem with scratches or dents (and I had
an expensive new car I was very protective of the
last few years!). Still, maybe I was just lucky,
such things do happen in shared parking lots, and
kids do play in those lots (despite occasional
requests from the management to stick to the playgrounds).
There are separate "laundry huts" with washers and
dryers for use by townhouse tenants. The first few
years these could be unreliable, but once they replaced
the coin-operated machines (and bill changer) with a
card that you refill at the rental office, vandalism ceased
and the machines generally work. Two such "huts" cover
all the townhouses, which means they can be quite busy
on weekends. Norwood is full of laundromats if you need them.
As others have noted, the office staff is young
and pretty, and turnover is high. I liked to call
it the "Logan's Run" rental office. Still, the staff
was usually helpful and always polite to me on the
rare occasions I dropped by. If you read the reviews
of all of the Windsor communities, though, it's clear
that the corporate focus is on money: they will try
to charge as much as possible and spend as little
as possible. Be prepared on move-in day to clean
your new place, as this seems to be one of their
little economies.
One thing they don't economize on is the landscaping
and exterior maintenance, I guess because they think
it attracts new tenants. During summer, there are always
nice flowers and shrubs, neatly kept, and during the
winter snow is cleared promptly. This (plus the commuter
rail station) is really the best feature of WG.
Interior maintenance is also very good, but not as
neat. I probably averaged 2 maintenance problems
a year, ranging from faulty smoke alarms to leaking
water heater to exploding toilet(!!), and they came
out promptly and fixed everything. Their fixes, however,
tended to be functional rather than beautiful, such as
spray painting over minor water damage and replacing
some floor panels with new ones that didn't fit quite
right. Like I said, shabby but comfortable.
WG doesn't have it's own security, and I've heard
some bad stories, but they always seemed to be about
the apartments. I don't recall ever seeing Village
Road (where the townhouses are) in the police logs
of the local Norwood rags (not that I read them every
week). All I can say for sure is that I never had any
problems.
OK, so I liked living here, so why'd I move' The price,
first, last and only. It's just far too high for
"shabby but comfortable", and it goes up every year.
At two-thirds the price, it'd be a good deal, and there
are much worse places just in Norwood, but unless
you're a one- or no-car family with kids and a job you can
use the train to commute to, WG just doesn't offer enough
to justify the price.
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