We have only lived here for a short time, but I can't wait until our lease is up next summer. I have to agree with some posts that the price is almost unbeatable, however that price is almost a clue-in to some of the issues that this complex has. We currently reside in the Stratford building and the fire alarms have gone off about seven times in the few months we have lived here. Last week the fire alarm went off TWICE in ONE day. I, unfortunately, was here for both. The first was at approximately 1:30p.m. and the other was at 12:30a.m. It is to the point where most people don't evacuate the building and I fear that a serious fire or injury would have to occur for the complex owners to spend the money to upgrade the kitchens (there are no stove hoods and so most of the time the alarm goes off because someone burned something) and the fire alarm systems.

Other issues that I have are with the apartment itself. First, the windows are circa 1965, which is about the time the building was built, and are sorely in need of replacement. In both the bedroom and dining area there are two crank windows on either side of a plate glass window. The issue is that they don't close all of the way because of the amount of paint in the window sill. When we put in a maintenance request they came and used industrial strength suction cups to close them, which made them unusable, if we wanted to have them closed all of the way again.

The second issue is that the hot water in the shower has steadily decreased over the past month and is now at the point that you have to have the cold water completely off in order to get an inkling of warmth in the water. There is TOO much water pressure, which causes the bathtub to fill with water because the ratio of water coming out to how much can drain is off.

We have seen a few roaches, but they were small. We did ask them to not spray or use the gell bug killer because we have a cat and didn't want to close him up in the bedroom ALL day while we were at work. I suspect that they came and used the gell anyway because when I got home from work all of the cabinets in the kitchen were open, everything on the counter was away from the wall, and there was an odd blue colored substance that appeared gell like in nature in the cauk area of the counters. I believe that it is because we have our cat that the amount of bugs we have is small.

We haven't had any issues with the laundry room, other than a couple of times where we had to call and have a washer serviced. My main complaint is that it is $3.00 to do one load of landry. We usually have four loads a week which means that we spend, on average, $48.00 a month to wash clothes. I'm not sure how that would average out cost wise when compared with having a washer and dryer in the apartment but that seems steep to me. The laundromats where I am from cost $1.50 a load. That's much easier to swallow.

The kitchen definately needs to be updated. The stove is fairly new, but the oven has probably been in the building since it first opened and you can barely fit a cookie sheet in it. There is no dishwasher so if you have more than two people in a house you'll spend most of your time doing dishes. A dishwasher isn't necessary, but it is nice.

The floor is also in need of repair. It is parquet and it has seen it's life span. They require you, in your lease, to have 80% of the floor covered to protect the floor and cut down on noise. However, the floor is in disrepair with loose squares, stains, scratches, and water damage (by the ac/heater areas in both the bedroom and dining "room")and so I am unsure how putting rugs on a floor in this condition is akin to "protecting" it. I can understand the part about cutting down noise.

If you like to sleep in on the weekends get used to hearing the trash trucks come at about 7am every day.

Overall, it's a decent place to live in while getting to know the area. It is in a great location and that was one of the main selling points for us. However, if the fire alarm goes off again, I might pull my hair out. SROlYjGrgm2VnM-SactV

User Responses
From: PrisonerOfAshlawn	Date: 06/26/2006
Very Accurate Review

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