Post # 1
Member
2076 posts
Buzzing bee
My Fiance and I moved to a new city in January, and for the first time ever we’re living in a “gardenview” apartment. I’ve never lived half underground before, and while I know there are positives to it (cooler in the summer, easier to haul heavy furniture in), I’m recently finding a lot of negatives (easier for people to peek in as they’re walking by, all sounds seem to echo right into our apartment with the windows open).
Bees who have lived in gardenview apartments- Did you love it or hate it? What were the pros and cons of this apartment style to you?
Post # 3
Member
382 posts
Helper bee
I lived in a Gardenview in Chicago for a summer. It was OK. It was far enough off the street that we didn’t get a lot of people looking in. I prefer to be higher, though.
Post # 4
Member
2359 posts
Buzzing bee
I have before, and i hated it. I will never live somewhere like that again. it’s just not my style
Post # 5
Member
4346 posts
Honey bee
@LindsayMaree: We had huge bushes in front of all of the windows so there were no peaking problems. And I disagree about making moving easy. We had to move everything down half a flight of stairs which was really difficult. Our apartment now is on the first floor and Fiance (he had to move while I was out of town) said that moving into this apartment was way easier. We pretty much never had the windows open because Fiance likes the cold, so he always had the AC on :). I like our apartment now way better, but a big part of that is we can have a dog, its better laid out, nicer, and his roommate is gone.
Post # 6
Member
9478 posts
Buzzing Beekeeper
I hate our apartment we are currently at. It was a fast decision because of certain things. I really wish we would have had more time to look, think, and discussed things. I hope we can move in Decemeber when our lease is up. I’d like to move into a town house.
ETA:
Our floors creak. You can hear EVERYTHING here. Our downstairs neighbor is beyond obnoxious, loud, and rude. IE: he has his videa game on and the sound is so loud that I can hear it as I type this. REALLY?! Also I work night shift and at 9:30 this morning I heard running around, slamming, banging etc. Even our doors would rattle. I seriously cannot believe the insulation in this place.
Post # 7
Member
2076 posts
Buzzing bee
@asscherlover: We only have bushes in front of one window, and our apartment faces the parking lot, so people naturally look to see what’s going on if there is movement or noise or something. It’s a little unnerving, but I’m getting used to it (sort of). I totally agree with you as far as first floor living goes. I guess I should have specified before- We’ve always lived upstairs in apartments, so hauling our couch and bed up a flight of stairs has always been SUCH a pain, whereas here we just took it all down 5 steps. Haha
@Rouquine: Ours was a rush decision too; it was all that was immediately available in our price range. Also, I totally know what you mean about hearing
everything that happens in neighboring apartments. The ceiling that seperates me from my upstairs neighbor seems paper thin, and because all of the layouts are the same, their bedroom is directly above ours. Needless to say we have to sleep with a fan on high to drown out any noises. :/ Seriously disturbing.
Post # 8
Member
4346 posts
Honey bee
@LindsayMaree: I kind of figured. My mom really really wanted an apartment on the top floor and I didn’t understand it because all I could think was “you want to carry all that stuff up the stairs?!” To be fair, I remember moving into the garden apartment with an 85″ long couch with a steel frame that you could not take apart or squish. It took us 45 minutes to get it through the door when we moved in. I have no idea how they got it out. I think with garden apartments its key to be far from the street and to have bushes or some kind of curtains for privacy. FI’s roommate put up two layers of sheer curtains so that you couldn’t see in, but there was still a lot of natural light (a big plus for her, we hated getting woken up so we had the most opaque curtains we could find in our bedroom). We still hear kids running around and our neighbors conversations. Its a little awkward, but I think thats just something we have to live with if we aren’t going to live on the top floor (though I bet we would still hear the people next door even up there).
Post # 10
Member
444 posts
Helper bee
@Rouquine: I sympathise!! I have a night shift too and the upstairs neighbor children, while nice, are obnoxiously loud and so is the traffic outside (sirens going off ALL DAY LONG) thats why I’m up now, can’t sleep *cries* Try airplane headphones, they block out sounds like a dream but are sort of bulky 🙂
Post # 11
Member
4346 posts
Honey bee
@LindsayMaree: We hear that all the time. At weird hours lol. I guess I shouldn’t judge though. Its hard not to think about other people hearing us though, and keeping those thoughts from ruining the mood.
ETA: Also in reference to the curtains, she kept the blinds on but pulled up, and then when she wanted to make sure nobody was looking in (while she was getting dressed) she pulled those down too. I think you could see shadows through her curtains, but that was about it (and with the blinds down you couldn’t see anything).
Post # 12
Member
6659 posts
Bee Keeper
I lived in the parlour floor and basement for 6 years (duplex) and I hated it and will never do it again. The only reason I stayed so long is because the apartment itself was amazing and the rent was ridiculously affordable. Also it was on one of the best blocks in the city IMO so I was reluctant to give up living in such a great location.
But I had people staring in all the time, especially homeless people going through the trash. And I had a big mold and cockroach problem in the basement which was my bedroom. And of course living on this floor means everyone thinks you’re the super so you get buzzed all the time if people forget keys or can’t get in or don’t know what apartment their friends live in.
I’m actually thankful though that I learned my lesson like this because when DH and I were looking at apartments to buy the market was FLOODED with garden apartments and if I hadn’t known how horrible it was I woul dhave been tempted to buy one. We ended up buying a 3rd floor apartment facing teh back courtyard and I am so ridiculously happy with our decision! 🙂
Post # 13
Member
4464 posts
Honey bee
I didn’t know what a gardenview apartment was before reading this post, but in NYC, no, I would really avoid all ground floor apartments. Here, there’s a large problem on first floor apartments with roaches, rats, etc. since garbage is kept on first floor, or street.
I love my apartment. We’re in a second floor walkup, great neighborhood, nice layout. My neighbors are slightly annoying, but not a dealbreaker.
Post # 14
Member
4801 posts
Honey bee
We own our townhouse! Kind of in between an apartment and house 🙂
Post # 15
Member
2695 posts
Sugar bee
I live in NYC, garden floor, and love it! But we are in the back, so no one is walking by, no trash and we get the garden all to ourselves. Having awesome outdoor space totally transformed city living for us 🙂 Luckily we don’t have rodent or roach problems at all (as I am sure many ground floor apartments do here), but we do need screens on our windows which I never had before when I lived higher up. and we CAN hear our upstairs neighbor walking, which is annoying. But the rent/location/outdoor space tradeoffs were worth it for us! But I would never live in an apt where the sidewalk was right there, too exposed for me. I think one flight up is also ideal, you don’t have a lot of stairs, but you don’t have the ground floor hassles either….
Another idea besides sheer curtains is the ones that come up from the bottom. Provides more privacy while allowing more light in…..
Post # 16
Member
2432 posts
Buzzing bee
@Rouquine: Definitely go for a townhouse! We love not having neighbors above us. And the common wall we do share must be a firewall because we rarely ever hear them. Once in awhile we can hear someone climbing the steps, and we can faintly hear their TV if our townhouse is dead silent and we’re close to that wall (our bedroom is on the opposite side of the house, so it hasn’t ever been a problem).