The Oaks on Wilmington Island vs. Colonial Grand at Hammocks on Whitemarsh Island? (Savannah: apartments) - Georgia (GA) - City-Data Forum

Sunny_Isles · 06-01-2011, 04:54 AM

We will be moving to the islands this summer and have narrowed down our rental options to The Oaks on Wilmington Island or Colonial Grand at Hammocks on Whitemarsh Island. Can anyone give me some pros and cons about these two complexes? We are a family of three with a son in elementary school.

And are there any other good options I have missed? I also looked at West Wind on Wilmington Island and Island Tree on Whitemarsh. Neither of those are viable options for us. We are looking for a spacious three bedroom apartment or condo (or two bed room with both den and living room) in or near Wilmington Park.

Thanks!

Sunny_Isles · 06-02-2011, 08:35 AM

Well...? I've seen a reference to negative opinions, but don't know what they are?

We are moving to the area to be closer to family and for our son to begin school in the area this fall. We will be renting until we can sell our home in town and buy on the island.

Padgett2 · 06-02-2011, 09:44 AM

Sunny, you have recently given your opinions on just about every post on this forum. So, you seem to have a good handle on what is what! Find an apartment that suits YOUR needs. You are just renting. Sign as short a lease as you can and start looking for the permamant home.

The management of these rental apartments could be different tomorrow. Whether you like it or not will depend a lot on who lives next to you. What suits someone, may not suit you. It's Rental Property. That means great today, bad tomorrow or bad today and wonderful tomorrow.

Every place you look will have some negative opinions. People are like that.....those that expect a paradise will be the ones that have the most negative outlook. Those that think that it IS a paradise, will probably have moved there from somewhere that was really bad.

Good Luck on your choice. Remember it's just for the length of your lease.

Sunny_Isles · 06-02-2011, 11:00 AM

I do know Savannah, that's true. But I don't know about these rentals. We own a condo in town, but will be renting out our place and then renting on the island until we can sell and buy. That could be a couple of years, actually. We don't even have it on the market, yet. So, I want to be sure we are somewhere we'll like for that long. I'm feeling pretty good about it now, but when I initially posted I had yet to return to my top two. And since I've been reading older threads I've noticed a couple of mentions about The Oaks, but not the actual opinions.

You're correct about our satisfaction being dependent on who lives beside us. That's pretty key for us. I think that we'll be in a unit which I'm pretty sure is mostly families. That helps because while we love music we do have a child who needs to sleep at night. And so do we! We're those old fogies now, you know.

I just really do not like to move and hope we'll be comfortable with this move until we make what I hope is our final move for a very long time when we buy again. I'd rather we take our time with this transition and make good decisions than rush into something and regret it.

arrgy · 06-02-2011, 02:54 PM

I lived in the Oaks for a couple of years. It was ok, until the neighboors moved in. They have very thin walls in some of the apartments. I would not recommend living anywhere except on the top floor. For 6 months we heard every footstep our neighboors made. To make matters worse, they had a dog and sounded like a race track upstairs. The dog would run from one end of the apartment to the other at all hours on end. Then of course it barked all the time at almost all hours. We went to complain to no avail. Finally had to move because of it. Parking was scarce and they only had at the time one trash bin for the entire complex. The office staff was friendly and all. But in the end after spending $900 a month on rent I moved and bought a town house of my own for only $100 a month more.

Sunny_Isles · 06-13-2011, 11:56 PM

Well, we do have the top (3rd) floor. Those stairs aren't so bad, though. They have many stairs with a low rise, so they're pretty easy to climb. They said they wouldn't have one on the bottom any time soon, and I ruled out the 2nd floor. We'd have people above us and below us! I hope we don't bother the people below us. We do have a child who likes to run like the dog that lived above you. And I was thinking Santa might bring some drums. I'll be sure to give them our number so they can call whenever is gets too loud or just downright annoying. I hope the people below us don't have a barking dog. At least we sleep with a low fan on that blocks out a little noise. As long as we have pretty good neighbors I think we'll like it.

keepforgettingusername · 06-14-2011, 07:30 AM

We live on the 2nd floor with neighbors above us. Just to let you know...we can hear your child and dogs and cats run from one end of the apartment to the other. We can hear when you drop something heavy on the floor. We can hear your washing maching on at 11pm. We can hear you walk across the apartment wearing heels/boots. We also can hear you flush your toilet at 2am. Sorry but we can hear everything. Please be gentle with us.

Sunny_Isles · 06-14-2011, 09:43 AM

That's horrible. I'm so glad we got the top floor. We're very polite neighbors, so the people below us probably won't have much of a problem. We don't have a pet. Our son has to go to bed by 8:00. I usually wear crocs or soft-soled shoes when cooking, and we rarely wear shoes inside other than the soft ones when spending long periods of time in the kitchen cooking. No shoes just wandering about. (I remember in college a girl below us came up and asked me to take off my boots when I was in the kitchen.) I'll be sure to ask about the washing machine, but I don't have a problem doing laundry in the early hours. I am a stay-at-home mom, so I can get that done during the day. I actually don't even have a problem not flushing the toilet in the middle of the night as long as it's just urine.

Really, the only issues will probably be any music or TV, not that we play loud music all the time. I just know that sometimes sounds carries in odd ways. And the type of play our son engages in in the early evenings and weekends. He will be in school full-time this year so he'll have homework to do in the evenings. He does like to "pace" doing what he says is "killing aliens" (we're in a Star Wars phase) and moves around while playing his Wii. I would also like for him to start an instrument this year, and have even considered the drums. I don't have a problem working out a plan with the neighbor about what are good times for that sort of thing. I think when someone knows you are being considerate and that the amount of time for that type of noise is limited (say 30 minutes) it's easier to deal with it as opposed to not knowing someone and hearing the drums or music come on and wondering when it's going to end and are they going to play it next time at 7:00 am. We're pretty flexible.

We're also in our 40s, a professional and a stay-at-home mom with only one very polite child. I'm not sure if the apartment below us is also a 3BR, but we will be using one of those bedrooms as a playroom. So, our son's BR and playroom/BR will be on one side, while the master bedroom is on the other side. That might help depending on the layout of the one below us. We'll see. Like I said, we'll give our number to the neighbors so any time they are hearing something that is just really annoying they can call. And I hope that they do. Many times people just don't even know that some of what they're doing is making a lot of noise to the neighbors.

Do you live in a 3BR? What building do you live in? And is there a problem with neighbors coming home at late hours and making a lot of noise, especially with loud music in their cars? Thanks for the heads-up!

keepforgettingusername · 06-14-2011, 10:08 AM

Our old neighbors above us had two full grown boxers (about 60 lbs for one and 70 lbs for the other) and they'd get up to play around 2 am until about 3:30 am every night and it was horrible because their owner was out and had no clue that they made so much noise but he also refused to crate them while gone. OMG the smell of urine when i went to leave a note was horrible because he'd be gone for 12+ hours and one of them couldn't hold it! Awful. He moved out but a dude who wears workboots and drops his toolbox every night moved in...and he does P90X in the evenings! Whoo hoo! I need a house!

Sunny_Isles · 06-14-2011, 11:12 AM

Ugh! One of the places we looked at said they don't allow pets of a certain size over the bottom floor, which is a good idea. In my opinion, dogs of that size shouldn't be in homes where they can't run freely outside. I've seen it and it's kind of sad to see a big dog crated up all day, which your neighbor didn't even do. We had an iffy couple apply to rent our condo once (we'll, we've had a lot of iffy people!), but they also had two or three cats. I vetoed it. I know some people can be really responsible with their pets, but overall the situation didn't feel right and then the pets, too. If I remember correctly, they wanted a short lease. The carpet was getting close to its last legs already. I told my husband that they'd probably just finish it off with their cats and we'd be replacing it sooner than we'd have to do so. A small pet deposit wouldn't have made up for it. It's been a few years, and two other tenants, and we're just going to replace it before we rent it again in the next few months. I'll be glad when we can get these places sold. I don't want to be a landlord anymore.