I am so glad I moved out of here. There's so much wrong with this place, I have to give it categories to even begin.
Parking:
When we moved in, we were told that each unit had an assigned spot and there was LOTS of visitor parking available (There is no covered parking at this complex). It turns out, I was able to count about 12 visitor spots. Since most couples have two cars, you can imagine how well that worked out. I had trouble finding a spot for myself, so finding a spot for a guest was impossible. After complaining the second week, they manager gave me an assigned spot for free. Regardless, there is still few visitor spots for guests, and most of my friends didn't even bother trying to look--they just parked on the street.
The parking aisles are all marked as fire lanes, so you're not supposed to park there. However, everyone does. In fact the previous manager encouraged me to! I had difficulty pulling into my spot because of big SUVs parking in the fire lanes. Imagine if there was a fire'' There are also trees on the side of the road in front of the complex that people park between, but the city complained to the current management so that isn't "allowed" either.
Frequently people will park in assigned spots. It happened to us about once a month, which is infrequent compared to when we first moved here. If a unit becomes vacant, people snatch up those spots until the new owners threaten to tow them. "Please" just won't cut it with some guys.
Also, be warned of winter weather. This December when we got the crazy snow storms, you couldn't get out of the apartment because the parking is on an incline. They bought salt, but it sat in a parking spot instead of being used. Some tenants were shoveling, but because they didn't lay down the salt it made it worse because ice formed. And that was just the parking issues!!
Noise:
As other reviewers have said, you can hear anything and everything going on next door to you. Coughs, conversations, walking, neighbors using the bathroom, etc. When we first moved in, the neighbors above us had three kids, one of them was an infant. You could hear the two older ones running up and down the halls and the baby crying all night.
Before we moved, the neighbors above us also had kids, but the adults are even worse. At 2:30 am I woke up to someone pacing back and forth through the apartment for over an hour. A month ago they threw a huge party that kept everyone up. A neighbor called the cops on them twice. Nice people, huh' That's not as bad as what happened to a neighbor of ours. Apparently a boyfriend locked his girlfriend out of the apartment, and she was screaming and pounding on the door for an hour before she called the cops--who kicked in the door. The next day a woman in her late 30s climbed the tree next to my bedroom window and was pounding on the window above me...at 6:30 in the morning!! Who DOES that''
That's just the adults. The kids there are really wild and never supervised. I think in the year and a half that I've lived there, I've witnessed two occasions where a parent was actually watching their kids. These aren't all older kids, either. There's a few that are too young for school wandering the grounds like a pack of wild dogs, causing terror wherever they go. They climb the trees next to my bedroom window (and sometimes tap on the window or try to peek in), throw things on my patio, and throw rocks at my cats (which I don't let out unsupervised because of all the cats wandering the complex). I've witnessed the children playing in the huge pile of garbage at the end of the parking aisle, playing with the trash compactor, and destroying the shrubs and trees. One day I walked outside, and the entire sidewalk was littered with the flowers the children had torn off of the bushes. It's seriously like living around a bunch of wild animals.
Grounds:
As previous reviewers have mentioned, the grounds USED to look nice. I'm not sure which happened first, but between the roofers, the dog owners, and the trash compactor it has gone way downhill in only a year.
When the complex got re-roofed, the roofers tore everything down onto the ground--including rusty nails that children could easily step on. I pulled a few nails out of my own shoes. The debris completely destroyed the landscaping, and a neighbor told us about how the falling debris actually shattered their window. Can you imagine' What if the broken window was in a young child's room''
The apartment allowed the roofers to place dumpsters in our reserved parking spaces AFTER tearing everything down. I called and told the asst. manager that they needed to remove them. After a few minutes of me trying to reason with the woman, she broke down sobbing about how it wasn't her fault. I know it's not YOUR fault, but YOU still need to take care of it! How's that for useless management' Emotional women who can't even do their jobs without literally crying'
The trash situation here is ridiculous. Before, they had three sets of two dumpsters; each set was placed at the end of one of the three parking aisles. Each set had one for recycling and one for trash.
The management decided to take out all of those and replace it with a trash compactor and a recycling dumpster, which was at the top of the hill by the road. It became very convenient for the one-quarter of tenants who were at the top of the hill, but very inconvenient for the majority of the complex.
I have a unit in the bottom-corner of the complex, so not only do I have to walk uphill, but then move half-way across the complex lugging trash. Before it was right at the bottom of the hill, convenient for the tenants in my building and the the two buildings next to mine. Before people at least could take trash down-hill and walk back up the hill without being weighted down.
The last thing is the dog owners are not picking up after their dogs. I've lived in apartments before that have had a lot of dog owners and not half of the dog poo issues. The management took away the complimentary bags for the dog owners. Why' Because the nasty kids I talked about were ripping the bags out onto the ground! Those brats leave toys, sticks, garbage, and whatever else they can get their hands on all over the grounds and walkways.
Safety:
Other than the falling debris from roofers, you still have a lot to worry about here. There are 10 registered sex offenders in a 2 mile radius. I have seen people smoking marijuana in the playground at night, and you can smell it coming from the apartments. There are some people who look like pot is the mildest thing they use.
Just last month I came home around 8:30 pm and saw a guy trying to pick the lock on the car that parks next to mine. He ran off, but I called the police anyway. I don't know if the cops ever came by, but the guy came back that night and stole my neighbor's car stereo. I don't know what else a person is supposed to do if calling the cops isn't going to keep your property safe!
Construction:
I can't complain about the layout of the unit too much. The only big issue is there aren't any lights in the bedrooms or living room. You have a kitchen light, two hall lights, and a patio light. There are switches that don't turn anything on, and the outlets are very loose so your cords will fall out (talk about fire hazard).
Another thing, there's nowhere to put the cat litter box because the kitchen and bathrooms are very small, and there is no other linoleum in the unit. We ended up putting one in the guest bathroom, but that's not very comfortable when we have company over. There isn't much counter space, but the master bedroom has a vanity with lights, which is a lifesaver.
The unit is, however, very poorly insulated. We spend a ton on electricity, and I know why. If you stand next to our front door, you can feel a breeze from all four sides of it. We try to keep pillows on the door frame in the winter. The door itself is very loose--you can jiggle it around when it's locked. The door has probably been broken down before, which means someone can break in even easier now. Every day I came home, I expected to see we've been robbed.
Maintenance:
The maintenance team itself is very friendly, fast, and efficient. If you can get the management to call them in to do a repair, it'll get done. However, GETTING the management to acknowledge you is the hard part. The washer/dryer unit in my apartment is very small, and as such it tends to get overworked very easily. One day, the inner compartment disconnected from the rest of the washer unit. I had to fight with the assistant manager on the phone for ten minutes before she conceded to telling the maintenance team. "It's just a big noise, it's no big deal," she told me. Um, hello' It's BROKEN'' And even if it is "just a big noise", I still want the thing fixed, thank you very much.
Something to mention, the washer broke two months ago while I was getting ready for work. This was before the management came in for the day. I called the emergency maintenance number, and I got an upset person on the other line. Apparently, this poor woman keeps getting phone calls from residents because the idiot manager recorded the wrong phone number on the voicemail. Good job!
Staff:
I had, as you read, numerous issues with the staff. The current manager is fine to work with if you can actually pin her down. In fact, she's very easy to work with. However, you will never get called back if you leave a voicemail. Even though the office hours clearly state 9:30 to 6:00, she leaves around 5:30 to make it to the bank in time (according to her). There is someone who supposedly works on Saturdays, but I have never seen her actually there. On several occasions I've gone the office on a Saturday at various times of the day, and I have yet to see this mysterious worker.
Overall, I highly recommend that you move there only if you cannot live anywhere else due to financial trouble, if you are a drug-user or criminal looking for a cheap place to rent, or if you're a parent who does not care about the well-being of their children. Please, by all means, move there so I know that you're not going to be living by me!

User Responses
From: kenmoregirl	Date: 05/11/2009
OMG! this is so fitting of realities in this apt complex. I moved out at the end of April and I can not say enough about how bad things were there! we had no shower for 2 months while people who had no business working on the remodel tried over and over and over to fix things it got to the point I gave up and bought a bottle of wine and said "Oh well, I only have 6 more months here"
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/13/2009
I can't dispute a thing. This place is sketch. Some buildings might be worse than others. I wake up to flashing red lights in the parking lot all the time. A few nights ago, Kenmore PD, two aid cars and an ambulance were here. Police don't respond unless it's a domestic dispute or a weapon was involved. Drug deals and drunks. Definitely not a place for kids. If you're broke, you can earn rent credit picking up the trash your kids throw around, or patching holes in walls your friends left behind. Just get to know the cleaning lady. It took her friend two months to weld a pool fence, and it looked like he was learning on the job. If you seriously want to consider this place, call the city and ask if the Timbers is up to code. The nicest people here are the maintenance men. The manager is a good person, but I think she's overwhelmed.
From: Audriest	Date: 10/06/2009
Emotional women who can't do their jobs without crying? Um. You're a jerk. She may be incompetent and react inappropriately but I've seen many more men with this condition than women. So sorry about your apartment woes, but also, shut up.

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