The Paramount

 

We have lived here a little over seven years now.

Annoyance with maintenance problems prompted me to leave this review, but I’ll do my best to leave a fair representation of both the plusses and minuses as I see them.

Pros:
- The balconies are huge.

Really nice if you like having plants or enjoying your own little piece of outdoors.

Ours has a view of the Washington Monument and our windows get great light.
- They let you have a cat or dog.

(You used to be able to have two pets, but one is still something.)
- It’s a block away from a metro stop - very handy.

It’s a 1ess-than-15 minute ride to downtown DC.
- Low rent increases for year-long lease renewals.
- Safe neighborhood with active community watch program and lots of nice parks, shops, and restaurants.

There is even an urgent care center around the corner.

- Decent sized apartments with good floor plans and closet space.

You can even have your own washer and dryer in your apartment if you want to (or just use the laundry room upstairs).

I like that in the 2 BR apt.

the rooms are on opposite sides of the residence rather than side by side.
- Regular air filter changes and annual pet-safe exterminator visits.

No recent pest problems.
- A space in the underground parking garage is included with your rent, and they let you rent an extra one if any are available.
- The neighbors are friendly enough - they are sociable if you want to interact but will leave you alone if you prefer to keep to yourself.
- They added some pretty flower beds and a lamp post.
- Very friendly staff, most of them know you by name.

They even keep a packet of dog treats at the front desk for the little furry residents.
- Not usually noisy in your apartment.

(*In the hallway you can hear everything in other apartments, and if your neighbors are on their balcony you will be able to hear them, but other than that it's pretty quiet in your apartment.) We never hear anything from the residents around/above/below us.

- New staff are much better about entering your apartment at pre-arranged and convenient times.

Cons:
- There are only two elevators for the whole 16-story building.

If someone is moving in or out, there is only one elevator for the whole building that day.
- You cannot access the stairs from the ground floor (locked alarmed door).

You need to take the elevator to get to your apartment, or at least to the second floor where you can get out and go to the stairwell from there.
- There are frequent (every couple of months, sometimes it's been every month) water “emergencies” in which they turn the water off all day to make repairs.
- Two times this year both elevators were out of service for a day.

Also, twice this year one elevator was out of service for longer than a week.

Maintenance staff sometimes (although admittedly not as frequently as they used to) lock the elevator that they are using when they are doing work in the building, leaving only one for the residents.
- Work orders for apartment maintenance are answered sporadically.

Often a second (or sometimes even more...) request needs to be made to have even signficant problems addressed.

For example, our air conditioner broke during a particularly hot week (90 degrees and higher) over the summer.

It took three stifling days and several requests for someone to come.

Also, a leak in our 1/2 bath poured several gallons of water into our apartment every time the people who lived above us used their second bathroom’s shower.

They did put up several patches that lasted a few weeks each, but finally fixed the problem four years later when people moved in who were using it every day.

For a few months though, all we heard were explanations of why it was a hard problem for them to fix - okay, but in the meantime we had to have buckets at the ready to catch the drained water whenever the people upstairs decided to shower.

Gross.

And the hole the water made in the bathroom ceiling still isn't fixed.

Another example is the sliding screen door to the balcony that was pulled off during the hurricane in 2003 - we finally got the new one this summer (2005), after asking yet again about it.
- The problem that prompted leaving a "buyer beware" review like this one is that four months ago there was a water leak in the kitchen wall that saturated the floor, curled up the faux wood planks, and saturated the hallway carpet.

After being told several times that it would be fixed that week (and then not with no further mention), they finally came today when I asked them to yet again.

They pulled up the ruined flooring, and found moldy/mildewed linoleum underneath.

As soon as it was exposed, the musty stench rose up from it, and two bleach rinses did little to help it.

Maintenance said it would "take awhile" to get someone in to take care of it, but with persistent multiple requests on our part have agreed to get someone in by the end of the week to remove the ruined linoleum.

It's like allergy central here in the meantime and it makes me honestly disappointed to have to push so hard to get something so major taken care of.

There are more examples of maintenance issues we’ve faced, but I’m hoping that this is an adequate sampling to give you an idea of specifics.

Basically, nothing we've needed to have fixed has gotten done without multiple requests, even when the situation was urgent.
To their credit, the current management are really nice and friendly about listening to requests for repairs...

but I'd really just prefer reasonably timed help for at least the big stuff.

I also know that every building is going to have maintenance issues from time to time, but I need for my home to be a reasonably healthy, safe, and peaceful place to live and the magnitude of problems here combined with the avoidant approach that the staff takes toward them compromises that.
- While staff are getting better about making repair visits convenient to residents, they still sometimes show up whenever and don't like being told it's not a good time for you.

They have also gone ahead and come in to work more than once when I was in the shower (and stayed in the apartment even though they heard the shower running).
- The parking lot is really small for the amount of traffic going in and out of it.

It’s tiny, right off a busy intersection, and is shared by a bank, a convenience store, and a dry cleaner’s.

Tow trucks regularly take cars away who have parked there during business hours, but it's still usually full.
- The windows have been washed *once* in the seven years we’ve lived here and are getting pretty opaque.

The lawn in front of the building grows into a field every summer and is rarely mowed.

Dog owners walk their pets on it daily and rarely pick up after them.

Trash (papers, cans, food bits, bags, etc.) that blows off balconies or in from the street collects on the grounds and stays there awhile.

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