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YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
10/5/2006
Years at this apartment:
2005
-
2006
2 responses
Please click on more below b/c YOU HAVE TO READ THIS IN ITS ENTIRETY!!!!
I moved here for the cheap rent with all utilities included and the location was great. I live in the Stratford building on one of the first 10 floors.
In addition to there being no power for 4 days here are my reasons for leaving after one year and one month:
THE KITCHEN: There are old appliances the dishwasher might as well be used as storage b/c if you don t wash your dishes before they will not come out clean. The cabinets are old and have been painted so many time that they do not close completely; the kitchen (no matter how clean you keep it) is always crawling with some kind of bug!
THE BATHROOM: old faucets, showers, tile and sinks: the shower did not work properly when we moved in, the sink started leaking after 6 months of living here, and the floors are so old that Clorox and every other kind of cleaner my mom tried could not get the floor to look like it had been cleaned. The sink is separating from the wall and there was NO electrical outlet in the bathroom when we moved in.
THE WINDOWS: they are ancient! They are drafty...so drafty in the winter that even the heat in the apartment could not keep the family room warm and we had a brand new baby at the time. Our solution was to take money out of our pocket and buy insulated drapes. The windows also leak rain when there is a heavy rainstorm. I ended up putting towels on the window sills to keep the rain from dripping down to the floor. In addition the windows have been painted so many times (inside and out) that some do not close all the way (accounting for some of the draftiness - most of that comes from the sliding doors to the balcony.)With these ancient windows there comes a lot of noise. We are close to the front of the building and there are busses coming through 18 - 20 hours of each day! And it sounds like they are driving through the apartment. It is so bad; I can hear the announcement from the bus telling the passengers where it is headed. And when car alarms go off it is unbearable, do not even think you are going to fall back to sleep!
THE BALCONY: Very Large but I was told we could not hang anything or clutter the balcony with stuff.
THE WALLS: there are holes in the walls at the floor but they are covered with plastic or rubber baseboards. Behind the dishwasher there are holes where the pipes go through the walls allowing for bugs and rodents to enter the apartment.
THE BUGS AND RODENTS: YES RODENTS!! There have been bugs from day one! Ants infested the area around the dishwasher under the counter, and there is usually at least one bug in the kitchen each day. Sometimes multiple (I ended up buying roach and aunt traps and Raid. The raid sits on the counter top b/c it is used that often. The traps look ugly (who wants to invite company over when you have roach traps in your kitchen''). And to top this off, we had our first mouse visit 8 months after we moved in (the beginning of summer). When we called the front desk the lady said: they (mice) do not usually come in the building until the fall season-- and she gave me some sticky traps and that was that. They did not work. By three months later we had two mice and the day I saw one of them crawl through my family room across the hallway into my closet and across the room into a tiny crack in the wall, I was fed up. The front desk gave us more sticky traps and we also filled the tiny crack with foam sealant. This pushed them into our kitchen (which we had to block off w/ cardboard and tape so they would not come into the family room again (with my 7 month old baby crawling around). With in 48 hours we caught 5 mice. Now the management company was willing to fill in the holes behind the dishwasher even though I requested this in May when it all began. Now 2 months after that fiasco in the kitchen, my roommate finds a mouse in the bathroom late one night and it crawled into a hole behind the toilet in the floor!!! GROSS!!!
THE AC/HEATING UNITS: are on the wall (no central air) and do not work worth a crap. The only one that works is in my child's room and it is so loud that we do not even turn it on anymore. And you are dependant on when the management company says you can turn your AC or heat on.
THE GROUNDS: they are nice and well groomed, however the paths to the park and the pools are not handicap accessible or stroller accessible. In addition the pool houses are not handicap accessible either; I ended up so frustrated that I only went to the pool twice all season.
THE PARKING: During the day it is not bad but the lots are used by commuters who take the busses. At night good luck...after 8 or 9pm the only spots left are very far from the entrances. It is well lit and monitored by cameras which are good.
THE MAINTENANCE: In the beginning it took over 2 months to get all the problems fixed on my walkthrough list and after that the maintenance workers themselves were pleasant and did what they were asked but the ones who fix up the apartments do a 1/2 a** job. For example, when I moved in before we moved any furniture, I was cleaning and in the corners of the apartment it looked there was dust and dirt. So I tried cleaning it and when it was not coming clean, I realized that they polyurethaned overtop of the dirt and dust when they did the floors before I moved in!!!
THE FLOORS: they are parquet wood squares and they told me it was required that I buy carpet or area rugs however I received another paper after I moved in that said we did not have to have carpet.
THE SAFETY: In the beginning I felt safe but around the holiday time we received a memo that said this is the time when there have been burglaries and be sure to lock both locks and your chain when you are at home. So now, I do not feel safe especially at night if it is late and I have to walk in alone with my baby and there are people hanging out in the parking lot or if there are old men running (for exercise) in the parking lot.
I do not recommend this apartment to anyone unless you are willing to live in these conditions with bugs and mice like they do in 3rd world countries. I am taking my baby and getting out of here!!!
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User Responses
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From:
purpleinfusion
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Date:
10/06/2006
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I am her sister and she is not exaggerating on any of the points she made. I would never live in this apartment complex or recommend it to anyone. Even people who gave this place a 5.0 rating said there were roaches. I guess it depends on how high your standards of living are and obviously some people's are not very high. There's also one person trying to defend the complex that lived there over a decade ago. How does she know about the current living conditions? A lot can happen in 12 years.
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From:
effinhairy
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Date:
10/10/2006
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Try Kensington Palace in London.
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