This apartment complex has some good aspects but also some major downsides.
The ladies in the leasing office were very nice during the initial tour. The complex grounds are also well-kept and there's a little pond at the end of the street (hence the name "Mill Pond"). You can walk down to the pond and there's a picnic table and a bench to sit and enjoy the view.
The downsides:
There's an asphalt plant around the corner from the complex. It's tucked away behinds stuff off the main road where you... might not notice it when you're touring the apartments. The asphalt stink from the plant fills the air on most weekdays from April to mid-December. That means you can't open your windows to cool the place down in the summer unless you want your whole apartment to smell like roofing tar.
There is little to no insulation between floors. You can't hear much from the apartment you share a wall with, but you can hear everything from the apartments above and below yours...people walking, kids or pets running around, voices talking, music, loud television, cabinets thunking closed, etc. You can't necessarily hear the voices clearly enough to make out the words people are saying, but you'll still hear the rumble of voices talking. You'll hear your neighbor's alarm clock or their cellphone ringing and sometimes even hear their phone vibrating. And I'm sure my neighbors heard things from my apartment even though I'm a pretty quiet person and only listen to music through my headphones.
You can also smell everything your neighbors are cooking. The smell often fills the hallways but also reaches into your apartment. Be ready for food odors and garlic smells galore.
This building generates dust like crazy. There's a constant layer of dust that accumulates *everywhere* in a matter of just a few days, regardless of how clean or empty your apartment is. I'm a very clean person and I don't have a lot of stuff in my apartment, yet no matter how often I clean, my dresser and other items quickly get covered in a layer of dust. Now that I've moved somewhere else, my stuff isn't covered in dust all the time anymore, so I know for sure it was the building and not my stuff that was causing the problem. Read More