We lived at Westshore from Sept '17-August '18 in a 3 bedroom apartment facing the lake on the ground floor. Married couple working at...
We lived at Westshore from Sept '17-August '18 in a 3 bedroom apartment facing the lake on the ground floor. Married couple working at Auburn with a toddler.
The actual apartment was really wonderful. All the rooms were very sizable--plenty of room for a couch and two recliners, a pretty full kitchen table, a king bed in the master, and queen in the back. The bathrooms were a little on the small side, especially the master, and lacked storage. We did not get washer and dryers and instead used the apartment laundry facility, which was always well maintained and being able to use a debit card was great. The space where a W/D would be ended up being amazing storage, along with the linen closet. It truly felt more like a home inside than any other apartment we had been and was a great place for two adults and a toddler. The area, as a whole, was very quiet and tucked in off the road. The location was great! Easy to get to campus or Tiger Town, and less than a minute to the movies. Never had any traffic in the complex. Parking was easy. If you have good neighbors, you're really set. There were dogs everywhere (we did not have pets), so that's a pro if that's you're thing. We always felt really safe there.
However, we had concerns with the complex. First, the floors were so thin and squeaky. We heard every single step our upstairs neighbors took, with two different sets of neighbors. Every time they opened their front door or porch door, we heard. Sometimes our front door shook from so much movement above. I could hear it over my TV at a normal volume. It showed up as red on my baby monitor. The stairs were very loud too. If upstairs or side neighbors were on their porch on the phone, we could hear it. If neighbors were smoking, it would waft into our apartment if our windows were open, and even if they weren't sometimes. Second, the maintenance was very inconsistent and non-existent after their amazing man Billy left. When we moved in, there were things broken and huge stains on the carpet (despite the $95, non-negotiable carpet cleaning fee). We reported our kitchen light out and it was not attended to for 3 straight weeks. We moved out with it still not working. I understand they did not get a new maintenance worker for over a month--what if it was an emergency? What were we supposed to have done then? Third, it was almost impossible to use our porch because of all the bugs. There were huge holes in the wooden beams on the porch which let critters in all the time. Even after they were filled, we never used that space because of the bugs. We also never used it because of the constant smoking of our neighbors (who did move out) or the noise from the neighbors. Finally, they tout a lot of amenities that either do not really exist or are in disrepair. Their "gym" has a few machines, all of which were broken the whole time I was there. There was a hot tub with the pool when we moved in, but it never worked once the whole time and was eventually filled in. The pool is open year-round, but was infrequently cleaned and closed right as it got hot for almost a month. The basketball court/tennis court is in total disrepair and seems dangerous to play on.
Overall, it was a good experience, but I did frequently feel that with such a high price tag, I should get more amenities or at least be able to watch TV in peace.