I have been a resident at the "East" section of Ryan's Run for over 2 years. (both east and west are similar, but I have no experience with the west)

The neighborhood is decent. It is void of loud children or barking dogs, and generally quiet at all times.

The general construction is about on par with any other apartments built back in the 60's. Decent layout, nice large rear patio door, large (single) bedroom. The electrical system has been modernized with circuit breaker in the closet, and GFCI outlets in the kitchen and bath. I would say the kitchen is the strong point with nice new counter tops and cabinets. The are a few weak points too - there is a hole the size of a softball in the concrete under the carpet near the sliding door, one of the closet tracks sags out of the ceiling, and you can feel air pouring in through the outlets. There is plenty of water pressure, hot water arrives at tap quickly, but the bathtub drainage is poor. I've been told this is normal for the complex. I have just about given up trying to keep my tub clean - it is difficult to do so when it collects 1-2 inches per shower that remain for 10-20 minutes afterwards.

Paint is what you'd expect in an apartment this age - rather chalky, full of patches, and a bit excessive inside the door frames. One patch in my bathroom is cracking between the door frame and bathtub.

Windows look somewhat modern, but the locks don't line up well - requiring a couple tries to latch properly. On rare occasions, I find water dripping onto the inside window sill in the bedroom from an unknown source.

Heat (minus the electricity to run the blower) is included in rent cost and settable. The AC unit is very efficient - it does not break the bank to leave it running throughout the summer. The blower is extremely loud (difficult to hear a TV or telephone conversation when in living room) as is the relay "clunk" that often wakes me when it starts/stops. The blower motor had to be replaced once while living here. When it failed on a Sunday evening in the winter, maintenance told me to "turn on and open my oven" for the night. Luckily it was replaced the following afternoon.

Expect to wake up on a weekday and be without heat or hot water 3-5 times over the winter. This problem (related to the central boiler) has been consistent over last 3 winters I have lived here.

Other maintenance requests have been mixed experiences. A bad bathroom exhaust fan was replaced promptly. When the clothing dryer blew an internal thermal safety fuse, it required 3 calls to get service. Since the maintenance number is an answering service, it seems necessary to inform the office staff to expedite service.

All units have Schlage's (discontinued) e-bolt electronic deadbolt. I understand the advantage of programmable keys that cannot be copied and an electronic audit trail, but the physical locks are very problematic for residents. It is downright embarrassing, while in the presence of guests, spending upwards of 30 seconds jiggling and fighting to get the deadbolt open. My first key eventually broke off in the lock. Maintenance had to drill it open and replace the deadbolt. This new replacement lasted about 6 months before my key refused to open it. The on-call staff was located somewhere in PA. When this occurred at 6pm, it took about 2 hours to gain entry into my apartment.

Parking is adequate. It can get slightly crowded over weekends, but otherwise it is rare I don't get a spot in front of my unit. Be warned - some other residents seem to be territorial over parking. I have gotten "if you don't live here, don't park here" notes on my vehicle already. Despite registering my vehicles with the office, I have also gotten official "tow notices" put on the windshield several times. The parking lots are NOT sports-car friendly. The aging speedbumps are getting flat and cracking apart. Instead of repairing them, sharp triangular plastic speedbumps were installed directly adjacent to the original bumps. Despite going over at a literal crawl, the exhaust system of my car was damaged, requiring immediate repair. I have chosen to store the car elsewhere because of this. The bumps still don't deter trucks or SUV's, instead just increases the noise of the bumps to the point of being a nuisance late at night, or early in the morning.

The swimming pool itself is very nice. Unfortunately it is open for very limited time. The season matches the high school summer vacation schedule - sometimes not opening until mid June. Hours and days are limited too. It is common to see residents jumping the fence when the pool is closed due to lack of lifeguard availability or practical hours.

Overall, I deem the complex to be a pleasant place to live despite some of the issues I have outlined above.

User Responses
From: FuzzyBoots	Date: 05/01/2008
Incidentally, they claim they've fixed the 6-month problem. Apparently the batteries run down in the system, so they now replace them regularly on a 6 month schedule.

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