OK, wouldn't live there again
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
12/30/2007
Years at this apartment:
2004
-
2005
I had a top-floor corner apartment for six months, not long after La Vie opened. (I ended up moving to a condo rental in Belltown, in some ways a little less nice but also less money and slightly closer to work.)
There were pluses and minuses. Best thing I remember is my view. I had a panoramic view of Elliott Bay, the Magnolia bluff and Queen Anne hill. On the rare non-overcast day I could see the Olympic Mountains. I've never had a view as great as that. I also got great breezes during the warmer days from the bay. Fantastic.
It was nice that the building was all-new. On the other hand, the construction, like a lot of apartment and cheaper condo construction in the vicinity of downtown Seattle, was rather shoddy, somewhat tacky and poorly and flimsily designed. Despite the newness of the building and appliances, there were some problems -- for example, I had repeated electrical problems with my dishwasher, and there were some problems with the elevators.
It was also nice while the building was still about half-empty. As they increased occupancy the building got a lot noisier and less pleasant. Near the end of my lease, some people moved into the apartment below me, and this building's construction quality was so bad that I could hear their conversations come right *up* through the floor -- something I'd never experienced before. That was really what made me decide not to renew my lease.
The garage was great while I was there, except that it was a bit tight turning into the garage entrance through the alley (I did some minor damage to my car once when entering). But there were tons of wide spaces on multiple levels. I don't know if that's less the case now that the building is (presumably) at full occupancy, but it was dramatically better than the cramped garage in the building I moved to.
It was a pain getting packages. Packages were left with the building management office, but they were there only limited hours, and I typically worked later than they closed, so it was often the case that I'd have to wait a few days before I could get a package. However, there was a mailbox rental store across the street that I could have used to receive packages for a nominal fee; had I stayed, I would have done that.
Another thing I didn't like was heating for the apartment and the poor insulation. Oddly, heating was done through a couple of electric heaters that were built into the wall. Now, on the one hand you might say this is adequate for Seattle's fairly mild climate (I'm from the Northeast and have lived in the Midwest, places that get cold winters and where that sort of heating system would be unthinkable for various reasons, economic and otherwise). However, I found that the apartment was extremely drafty as the months went on into winter. Even though outside it wasn't that cold at night by Northeast/Midwest standards, there appeared to be no effort to insulate the windows or otherwise keep drafts in. This had the combined effect of making the apartment feel *colder* than a comparable apartment in the Northeast or Midwest on a winter's evening. I don't recall how high my electric bill was. This failure to insulate use of in-wall electric heaters was also present in the Belltown condo I rented later on (but wasn't an issue because by then winter was ending).
A couple of other nice things: the post office was a few blocks away, and some decent grocery stores were also just a few blocks away. The proximity to Seattle Center wasn't as bad (in terms of traffic and noise) as one might have feared, although my apartment overlooked one of the many commerical surface lots of Lower Queen Anne and on some late Friday or Saturday nights there would often be some noisy drunken people in the lot. The building is on the edge of Lower Queen Anne, making it convenient not only to Queen Anne but also to Belltown and the core of downtown. This was important to me as I really like to walk.
All in all, I'd say La Vie was probably better than a lot of other rental housing in the area, but like much downtown-vicinity Seattle rental housing, it left a lot to be desired, primarily in terms of quality of construction. There's a lot to be said for that view, and for being close to the bay, but if I had to do it over again and live in Seattle, and I had to rent, I'd probably try renting a house in an area a little farther from downtown.
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