Hey Vanessa
Congrats on the upcoming wedding and the acceptance to UHS! I will also be getting married over the summer and starting UHS in the fall. My fianc? and I went apartment hunting last weekend so I can give a little bit of first hand knowledge on some of the apartment places you mentioned. Camden Passage, Woods of Walnut Creek, and Bennington Ridge are all north of the Missouri River. We timed out the commutes and Woods is about a 10 min drive to UHS and while Bennington and Camden are more like 15 min drives (Saturday afternoon, don't know how it will be during rush hour). My fianc? and I wanted something that was a little closer, so of the three, Woods is the only one we looked at. We also looked at Briar Hills, which neighbors Woods of Walnut Creek and Colony Courts, which is close to the intersection of Searcy Creek Parkway and Parvin Rd.
Here are my notes from our hunting adventure:
Briar Hills
Huge living rooms
Washer and dryer are downstairs and shared by whole building (2-3 apartments I think)
Dishwasher and Garbage disposal(dishwasher is a must as neither one of us like to wash dishes)
Overall impression wasn?t bad, but at the same time it didn?t feel like home
Colony Courts
Exterior of the buildings needs work, need to replace some siding, touch up the paint here and there (it didn?t look that bad, but having done carpentry work with my grandpa I didn?t see why they should leave it in a mild state of disrepair)
lots of children, may have been due to the Thanksgiving holiday though
Woods of Walnut Creek
Offered discounts for the employees of some companies based in the area
Trees, trees and more trees, also squirrels
Energy efficient (R-30 in the ceilings, R-19 in the walls, ceiling fans, etc.)
*?R-factor is a measure of energy efficiency, more R factor equals more energy efficiency
We ultimately decided to go with Woods of Walnut Creek based on location, aesthetics of the surrounding area and the discounts. My fianc? signed the lease yesterday morning. However, I don?t know how many more vacancies Woods of Walnut Creek is going to have in the near future. According to the 10pm news tonight, Woods of Walnut Creek had a fire last night that destroyed one housing unit and displaced seven families. At this point I don?t know if the unit we are renting has been affected or if the current vacancies will be filled by those displaced by the fire. I?ll keep everybody posted. Let me know if you have any other apartment questions.
Later,
Audrey
PS I just called my fianc? and our apartment wasn?t affected nor is it needed for the displaced families, so it looks like we will be renting from them after all!
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