Review History for Putrid186

Mickley Run Apartments


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Putrid186

Resident 2008 - 2010

3/22/2010

I've just signed my third year lease for this complex. Overall my stay here has been enjoyable and would really hate to leave this place for many reasons. I enjoy the space in our living room and the space in the parking lot (lots!). I like the self-service features of salt to throw on the steps in the winter, and the delivered mcall's weekly paper (is that provided by the office or does mcall just simply do that? Regardless, it's nice). But with any dwelling owned by someone else, there are always cons and I will cover them in full so that everyone knows exactly what they are getting into. First I'd like to cover the positive aspects of this complex that make this place stand out from the rest. For the past 2 years we have never seen anything worse than a simple house spider. No ants [inside], rodents, roaches, etc. There is a slight problem with Eastern Boxelders breeding on the side of the building causing them to breach often, but that will be dealt with soon. There are hired cleaners that come by what seems like weekly to vacuum hallway carpets, sweep, and clean the halls and steps in general. The living space is great. I find the master bedroom to be a fairly large size and well lit with 2 generously sized windows. the walk-in closet is great mostly to me because it includes a switched light. My god I don't know how drastically my opinion of this place would have changed had it no light in the walk-in closet. The living room is large but long. The kitchen space was sacrificed to provide an even roomier living room. The ceiling height again is generous. I'm 5'11" and am unable to touch the ceiling if I stand on my toes and reach for the skies. I can jump! But I don't because that would really piss off the neighbors (see noise below) The main bathroom is conservative in size. Our model has the washer and dryer in the bathroom itself where some apparently have them in the linen closet. While I prefer the [much needed] added space in the linen closet, having the dryer in the bathroom causes lint to get over absolutely everything, requiring frequent cleans. There's a water reservoir lint catcher for the dryer exhaust but anyone who's used one knows they don't to jack. Very well lit and the Shower/Tub is fairly basic. It does come with corner-cubbies or whatever you might call them, small ledges in the two corners for shampoo, soap, etc. The parking is great but it looks like it varies on what building you live in, so this is something you will need to plan before signing your lease. The upper complexes has a very large central parking lot, moderately lit, and gives 6 buildings direct access. The furthest building has a bit of a distance to walk to this lot however. Lower lot is asymmetrical and is a coin-toss for a good lot location. An opportunity here would be more lighting and at least some fake security cameras to ward off the riff-raff. The second bedroom is adequate in size, has one generously sized windows, and has a large closet - not walk-in and no light. Nothing special here! Gas stove! I'm a self-proclaimed chef, this is a necessity. I enjoy venting about the cons of this location. First and most impacting is the kitchen. It's just too damn small, and that's pretty much all there is to it. The size of the kitchen was sacrificed to give a larger living room it seems, and that was a bad idea. If they had an open floor plan and pushed out the kitchen a half of a foot, it was be beautiful and perfect, but that's not the case. Two people can not be in the kitchen at the same time. Maintenance - Oh--my--god. I've seen other reviews and heard other people talk of previous maintenance professionals, and I wish that was the case today. Instead, we have this blight-on-earth manager named "Sean." He has a serious attitude no matter the situation. His lackadaisical work ethic just obliterates any faith I have in my tickets getting honored. As another reviewer here has said, in most cases he'll have another maintenance employee do a job and Sean will never check this work. In my experience with Sean, the several promises and plans given were never followed through. Not a single one. It always required another ticket to be submitted with the office. This may be a coincidence but those who fulfilled these tickets were never Sean himself. Not all maintenance blows nuts at their job. A guy by the name of "Cleveland" is at least mediocre in skill, has a decent work ethic and is more than a pleasure to talk to. Keep an eye out for this guy, he'll make your day. There's a fun story at the end of this review about maintenance if you care to read it. The structure is in some need of maintenance. The windows are old and, as another here has pointed out, drafty. These old windows also allow more types of bugs and insects to enter the home, like the aforementioned Eastern Boxelder. There is foot-long bulging on the wall above the frame of the doorway to the main bedroom, travelling in a northwest fashion (Picture Attached). This is not a large concern, but it is unsightly. It's progress the past 2 years however is a bit faster than I've seen in other scenarios which, in addition to the slight, imperfect skewing in each room, just screams poor construction. Some things I'll mention here are not as impacting. The noise problem varies. On a horizontal aspect, it's damn near impossible to hear our neighbors. Very thick walls, lots of insulation. Next door we've had 2 tenant families. Both extremely loud as heard in the hallway, once was a family with 2 toddlers that were noisy as all hell - couldn't hear a thing from our living room. The door to the hallway itself however is barely insulated so anyone walking through the hallway is heard crystal-clear. This is a problem when you get a noisy bunch of blitzed ------ dicks knocking on that fat chick's door for a half an hour too pissed to realize she's not there, while you're trying to watch Primer. That movie is WAY too in depth to have this kind of interruption. Vertically however is weak. The floors on 2nd and 3rd floor are not screwed down well and cause lots of creaking in most cases. The acoustics of the floors actually amplifies impact too, making a small child sound like a rhinoceros if you live below the fat animal. Living above a floor, the most I've heard was the loud bass from crappy music - the music you hear blasting out of every cherry-bombed 4cyl Civic EX and every pimped out minivan from Allentown. The neighborhood is sketchy at best. It's on the border of Allentown. Much much nicer but a previous tenant in my building (who posted a review here as well!) had his/her GPS unit stolen from the car. The window was smashed to obtain this, it was not a simple "Open door - Take GPS" steal. I don't like having the feeling that my possessions are at risk in my car. So far the neighbors are great though. I've got this awesome guy across the hall from me who will pick up a package from in front of my door if some ignorant UPS guy leaves it there and will slip a note advising this - We reciprocate this as well. It's not like NBC's "Friends" but people are courteous if you at least say "Hi" to them. We have a local skunk. I don't consider this to be a negative really. Occasionally you'll get a skunk smell, a few times each year, but it never lasts long and the bugger is so entertaining. I already ran up a hill at night while it was rummaging through the garbage irresponsible people left around the dumpster. It kindly minded my path and trotted away without spraying me. It was about 1.5 feet away. Sometimes on the balcony at night I'll watch it stroll below me and I'll grab it's attention, and after a few seconds will just continue on it's way. While this complex has plenty of room for improvement, you can't beat the price for what you get. The biggest sacrifice is probably the security risk just because of how sensitive that quality can be, but if you are smart and hide your GPS unit, I don't see any problems. I plan on remaining here until becoming a homeowner is possible and would definitely suggest this to anyone who needs to be in the area of what is now Hokendauqua (that's right, it's no longer Whitehall). Please not the 4/5 Overall rating is mostly considering what you get for the price and my general satisfaction. It is almost a 3. I would have considered it a 6.5/10. If you want a question to be answered objectively, feel free to respond to this review (does this thing have any kind of messaging service?) and I'll be more than happy to answer! Below is that story I was talking about. Storytime! There once was a very slow leak from the shower above us in the master bedroom's bathroom, causing discoloration and sagging. I put a ticket in clearly stating that there was a leak and it had formed over a long period of time, which translates to a slow but consistent leak. I watched as Robin (currently the Rental Office manager) correctly transcribed this important aspect. When I was not present, someone had came and removed a square section of the ceiling drywall as anyone would do if they wanted to replace a segment of drywall. A roommate mentioned the gentleman said he would return. 10 days later still no one had returned. Another ticket was placed, again describing the nature of the still-present leak (yeah, I had to take showers and get dripped on once per shower). The following day an older maintenance guy, unsure of name, came and took a gander. "There's no leak" he said. I explained in depth the nature of the leak. During our talk a drop came down and slammed onto the shower floor, at which I exclaimed "did you not just hear that?! That was a water drop from the leak upstairs." After blowing me off he continued the incomplete job. The job was completed either the next day or the day after that.. And guess what? The leak persevered and ruined this beautifully replaced drywall section. After an escalated visit, "Cleveland" came by and the entire issue was resolved, leak and all. Thanks for reading! Happy Hunting

Review 13 out of 32

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