Colonial Garden Apartments

Caitlin Everly

I lived here for about 1.5 years with my partner and 2 cats in a 2 bedroom and it was an excellent place to call home especially during COVID. Darcy was always easy to get ahold of and answered any questions that I had. The grounds were always kept really clean and I always felt safe walking around during the evening. The apartment itself has really nice original hardwood floors and big windows that let in a lot of natural light. The kitchen has older appliances, but everything worked really well. The sink is quite big which makes doing dishes easy. There's plenty of storage within the apartment as well. I never dealt with any bugs within the apartment, there's a lot that get stuck inside the entryway but that's kind of unavoidable. Darcy was patient with us during our move out which was honestly a bit chaotic because we were moving across the country and underestimated the amount of time it would take. Parking was extremely easy and I never had any problems with people breaking into my car as some other reviewers had said. The location was great, you have access to food, Trader Joe's is within walking distance, Fred Meyers just up the road, and Laurelhurst and Division within a few minutes drive. I miss this apartment and location a lot! I highly recommend living here :)

erica litzner

I have been living here in Colonial Gardens since Feb 2016 and have moved twice, from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom to a bungalow. We have exactly zero plans to move because we can’t imagine finding anything this nice and spacious for anywhere close to the price. And speaking of the price, it has barely gone up in all these years. Of course, with each bigger space we got, our rent went up. But otherwise, rent increases are rare and reasonable. As for the spaces, I have loved the balance between an older space with cozy charm combined with new windows that actually keep us protected from the elements. In each unit we’ve lived in, there has been an amazing amount of natural light and beautiful views of the grounds. We’ve enjoyed gardening here, lazing about the grass on sunny days, and picking blackberries along the side wall. It’s been awesome living within such a short walk to the Hollywood farmers market, Grocery Outlet, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Target and QFC. A 5 minute walk to the Max is super convenient too. In all these years, I’ve never once needed to find street parking, and the dumpster is never overflowing. I see other people’s reviews talking about mold, and I get it…mold sucks. But I’ve lived in a lot of places in this city and mold is everywhere. It needs to be managed differently in each place, and here is no exception. But it is manageable and we don’t have any persistent problems. It really just takes keeping a clean home and adding a few fans for airflow. And keeping our home clean is super easy since the units are very well kept. Whenever we have a maintenance request, it is managed swiftly. Darcy is super nice, responsive and reasonable. Over the years I’ve become friendly with lots of fellow residents and I’ve never had a friend tell me that Darcy was unreasonable about moving out expenses. And of course, we’ve moved twice so I’m speaking from direct experiences as well. Like I said, I can’t imagine when we’ll leave here. We could technically afford a house, but it has been so great to live here on an essentially fixed budget and keep saving for the future since the cost of living here is so low and the quality of life is so great. Over the years we’ve glanced at our options for renting or owning elsewhere, and everything has been less room, less natural light, less yard space, less garden space, less centrally located and significantly more expensive. I suppose we might leave someday, but judging by how long some of the residents have been living here, we may just stay forever.

natalia guerrero

My partner and I really enjoyed living here; I was set on a vintage apartment and these units are well maintained to keep the original 1940s details as much as possible. I appreciated the layout with green spaces outside as one misses out on having a yard when living in an apartment. The neighbors were friendly and quiet. Darcy was quick to respond to maintenance issues and the units are very fairly priced for the area.

Hoang Samuelson

As a long time resident, it is very disappointing to see this complex transition from a well-kept, beautifully landscaped and professionally managed apartment to a lackluster, unsympathetic, and incredibly unprofessional state that it is in right now. Ever since it was sold off to a private party who relinquished the management to his daughter Darcy & other family members, the quality has gone downhill dramatically. Issues that we've faced includes: 1) Being burglarized twice - when we told Darcy, her response was "Sorry, hope you have renters insurance!" She offered no solution at all. Little did she know that renters insurance was required when we moved in & before her family took over, so yes we had insurance, but they don't pay unless your loss is more than $500 per incident. Our loss was about $450. 2) Lack of maintenance & upkeep - Darcy is never around although she claims she is. Even landscaping was random, maybe once a month, no longer on a consistent schedule as it was before. 3) Having people pass by our complex including dumpster divers and homeless camps popping up around the corner. Several times we had people take baths at night with our water hose outside our window. 4) For almost two years, Darcy never did a maintenance check. The result was that our neighbor directly downstairs from us emitted an incredibly foul odor, including mold growth, amongst other unhealthy conditions. When we reported him, that was when she finally did an inspection. 5) Finally, Darcy and her family fails to keep professional records – when we moved out and asked for an itemized receipt that shows the cost and asked her why it was that much, all she provided was a screen shot of a text message from a person she employs to clean and nothing else (very unprofessional). She claimed that we did a terrible job cleaning and that she lost several days of rent, but reality is we spent two days cleaning and checked off everything on her list, and by comparison to other apartments we knew, the cleaner didn’t spend as much time as other apartments. So no matter what you do or don’t do to your apartment, do not expect to ever get more than 50% of your security deposit back. It won’t happen.