I'll start with the positives. The apartments are very large with plenty of storage for what you pay. There are 2 pools and an internet cafe that are all very nice. You get Ypsilanti pricing while still being on the nicer west side of Ypsi closer to Ann Arbor. On top of that, gas here is free, which is used for heating, hot water heater, and stove, so you can save money on utilities.

Now for the negatives. Everything about this place is old and getting older with no signs of updates or refurbishing. Our cabinets are aweful, our countertops are falling apart, our fridge stays too warm while the freezer stays too cold - building up inches of ice and ruining all our food in a matter of weeks. And with the fridge, there is only 1 control for both the fridge and freezer. so if you turn it up or down, one or the other becomes un-usable. Our bathtub doesnt work porperly at all. When you turn it on it makes a horrible screeching noise that can be heard all throughout the building, and no water will come out of the lower spout. The shower head works fine, but not the bath. All the other units in our building do the same thing. Our windows have a hard time shutting. We had to stuff old towels in the cracks for better insulation. The carpeting is old and comes up in the vacuum cleaner, and there are loose floorboards underneath that squeek when you step on them. We get a lot of noise from our upstairs neighbors who like to party until 3am four days a week.

The stove and dishwasher work fine. Stove runs a bit hot as with any gas stove, and the dishwasher will do a mediocre to decent job if you load it right and use a good detergent. Each building shares a laundry room on the lower level, and the machines take quarters- $1.50 for wash and $1.25 for dry. They usually come out musty smelling if you dont use a lot of detergent and drier sheets.

All of the above problems have been brought up to maintenance, and they have made attempts at fixing them. Keyword "attempts". They try, but they have no clue what they are doing and usually end up only half fixing things only for them to revert back to broken after a few weeks. I gave up on them and just live with it.

All in all it's not as gloomy as it sounds. You won't find a better bargain around for an allright place. There are lots better out there but you will pay for it. Spicetree was a fine home for me in a time when I needed the bills to be low and still have a spaceous place to live. Now that I am graduated and working though, I am getting sick of the negatives and am willing to pay more for nicer things. I lived here for 3 - 1 year leases and would recommend it to any college student.

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