Okay, I moved here in the summer of 2004 and I used this site when I was looking at different places, so I thought I would do my best to give a comprehensive review to others who are thinking about living at this apartment complex.

First of all, I think the most important feature to note here is that the complex is really convenient to a lot of key areas. I work at Duke and it takes me maybe 5-8 minutes to drive to work in the morning on 15-501. I hear that it is relatively easy to drive to Chapel Hill as well. We are also right next to (and by that I mean around a 2 minute drive) to a movie theater (never too crowded so you can show up late), at least 3 grocery stores, 2 Starbucks, a Target, a Samy?s Club, and a little farther away (less than 5 minutes) a Walmart, Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. We are also on the restaurant strip as far as I am concerned. Youy?ll never run out of places to eat.

Some other things that I like about the actual apartments are the size and layout. These are really new apartments so the appliances and overall layout is modern and very nice. I especially like the layout of the kitchen which is very open. The rooms are spacious and the nine-foot ceilings help with that. I also like the crown molding in the living room.

What I have not liked are the parking spaces. Whoever said that the spaces were narrow was not lying. I have at least 5 dents in my car that I did not have before I moved here. On the other hand, neither my roommate nor I have ever had any problems with theft or car break-ins and we live on the edge of the property on the Glengary side. When I asked about that problem when I moved in, management pointed out that car break-ins did occur all over that area (including other complexes) at one point but that most happened to people who didn't bother to lock their car doors. Now I don't know if that was just a spin they were trying to put on it, or if it was the truth, but we have never had any problems.

I am also really rather sick of all of the construction. While we have never experienced power outages (due to construction or anything else) I am upset about safety issues on the main road. I think my problem is the road is rather curvy and the construction vehicles (big or small) have no problem with just parking in the road and blocking a whole lane without stationing anyone to direct the traffic. With the way people come speeding down that road and then being forced to go into the opposite lane to go around the construction vehicles without knowing who is coming from the opposite direction, I am amazed that someone has not been seriously injured yet. I wonder about the legality of blocking a main road without someone to direct the traffic. I wish someone would look in on that. As for the noise of the construction, I guess I am far enough away that I don't really hear it, except for the hammering in the afternoon. For the most part, I work during the day so I don't get the worst of it.

For those of you that are first time apartment renters like I was, I just want to point out one thing about the mail. If you get a package from anyone other than USPS and you are not there to pick it up, they sign for it at the office and do nothing to let you know about it. So if you might have family or anyone else sending you packages or gifts, make sure they tell you about it or it will just stay there forever. I had actually ordered a pair of shoes, so I knew they were coming but I had no tracking number or anything of that kind. When I finally called the company, they said someone in the office had signed for them a month and half earlier. Now this is probably my fault since I didn't check more often with the office, but in my defense, they (the office) never told me that they received packages for residents but would do nothing to forward them. Also, you would think that common courtesy would have them leaving a note at my door or a short phone call after they had my package for a month.

What else' The hot water issues. I have never had a problem with that. I lied. The one time we did have a problem was when I filled the garden tub with hot water and then took a shower when I was done and my poor roommate took a shower not knowing what I did and froze. Minus that incident, however, we have had no problems. I just wouldn't suggest taking back to back showers....which to me is just common sense.

Someone also mentioned thin walls. Maybe my neighbors are really quiet but we really haven't had a horrible problem. We hear the dogs barking every once and a while but it isn't horrible. What is much worse is the noise from the floor above us. Occasionally it sounds as if elephants are stampeding through, but I guess I have to concede that living in any apartment complex, I should expect to hear my neighbors. We are only separated by one wall after all. So I would say the complex is average on this feature.

As for the fliers that were mentioned, I guess I hadn't really thought about them that much, but after having that pointed out I have to agree that for residents that are not home everyday that can be dangerous.

Finally, the office staff and maintenance. I don't have any real complaints about them. The people in the office are always nice. When I mentioned in my move in sheet that the dishwasher made funny noises, they were there the next day to fix it. On the other hand I mentioned that the balcony light was out at one point in the office and they said they would fix it and that never happened. In fact we haven't had a light out there the whole time we have lived here.

Overall, I would definitly recommend this apartment complex to others. Especially those working/going to school at Duke (since that is my experience and it works). It has been a great place to live. I would just recommend that you don't count on the complex for social relationships (we never even met our neighbors), you have lots of lights (like a ceiling fan/light for the bedroom since they don't supply any), and you be very careful about the lease term. We got shafted by renting for a year and two months. Suddenly in those last two months our rent jumped $300 even though we gave them plenty of warning.

I hope that this review helped some of you in making a decision. Cheers!

User Responses
From: ralieghremixed	Date: 10/19/2005
this is a nice review. very long.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates