Four Seasons at Umstead Park is a nice complex, but not great.

First of all, as you will see from the earlier posts, the aparentment changed management companies in late 2002. This didn't bother me as long as they didn't raise my rates or make us sign new leases, etc. I have had nothing but positive responses from the current managemet staff and found them to be more friendly and more professional than the other staff. One of the first things they instituted was locking up packages and having to sign for your packages at the office. In the past, you simply had to find your package in a pile in the back room, which I didn't appreciate as most of my packages were fragile manuscripts or if damaged, could not be replaced. Now, even while they are in the closet, the staff treats the packages nicely when looking for yours, which means they do the same thing when they have to move mine for others.

Second, the parking. If you like to entertain guests, you need to one of the apartments on the Winchester street side (facing Glenwood Avenue and Carmax). Tenant and visitor parking is very plentiful there. When my dad visited in February, he was able to take up 5 spots with his truck pulling a car trailer and no one had a problem, there were still plenty of spot. If you get an apartment on the other side, there are more apartments, fewer spots, and no visitor spots.

Third, the maintenance. As another poster said, these building contractors took a few shortcuts when building these apartments, there are a few non-90 degree angles, questionable caulking jobs, etc, etc, but I have never had a problem when I called maintanence and asked to have something fixed. In the last few months, they have fixed our kitchen faucet, our doorknob, and our closet doors and all of these have worked without a problem since.

Fourth, the floorplan. The floorplan is interesting, but definitely smaller than what you could find elsewhere for the same money. If you want a big open floorplan, you might try "Trinity Park" off of Trinity Road near the intersection of I-40 and Wade Avenue. The hallways are pretty skinny and the bedrooms are quite small and if it were not for the deal on rent, I probably would not have moved here as it wouldn't have been worth the money. The walls are a little bit thinner than normal, so I wouldn't plan on any all night parties.

Fifth, location: This is probably one of the better locations in Raleigh. You aren't in the middle of everything, but you don't feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. Within 3 miles is a Food Lion, a Sports Authority, a Harris Teeters, a McDonalds, a Blockbuster, a Dominoes Pizza, a Target, some good restuarants (ah, Mongolian Grill) and gas stations, and just down the street is the Glenwood Avenue corridor of shops, including Best Buy, lots of furniture stores, and other assorted services. It's close to 540 in the other direction, which means the airport is a quick 5 minute trip, but being perpindicular to the glide path means that there aren't planes flying overhead all the time. Down Ebenezer Church Road just a bit is a back entrance to Umstead state Park, which is great for riding your bike or taking a walk and that particular path is very wide, so their's no chance of getting run over.

Sixth, "the ammenities": Last pool season, I was going to get in the pool, but before I even stepped in, I could see all sorts of bugs and dirt, which hopefully will change this pool season. They have a business center (I don't know what's there as I haven't needed it, but I beleive there is a fax, a computer, and a scanner) and a workout room that is open 24/7. The mail is all centralized at the club house, which is very well centrally located and the mail person is very good. I have had many items come for me without a specific aparment number, but they land in my box every time. UPS and FedEx will try to deliver to the door, then leave the package at the office.

Seventh, the neighbors: The neighborhood is very diverse so that you don't feel like you are living in "singleville". There is a good mix of college students, young families, and older folks, which makes the feel of the place very conservative, which I appreciate. The ethnic diversity is apparent as well.

All in all, good, but I'm the kind of person who needs a little bit of space and I feel cramped here, but for those who like a quieter kind of life, this is definitely for you. AD2Hw9Wn8Umb3NN1w1jt

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