I recently moved out of Windsor Hills after living there for two years. I have to say that my…read moreexperience there was a great one. I originally moved to Blacksburg due to a relocation with the military. My office was on the campus of Virginia Tech, so I wanted to live somewhere that was close by. Windsor Hills is just that, being a short two miles from where I needed to be. The second necessity for me was that it needed to be pet friendly, which it is. I found this to be a difficult feature to find, as the vast majority of the locations around Blacksburg are NOT pet friendly. This might be to shut out "irresponsible" college kids and their animals. As a result, though, it seems about 80% or more of Windsor Hills residents have a pet (mostly dogs). My two major concerns fulfilled, I'll discuss a few of their pros and cons.
PRO:
* Pet Friendly. Not only pet friendly, but caters to pet owners. There are numerous pet waste stations where they provide waste bags and places to dispose of the poop. There's a small dog park on the property where you can let your dog run free. They also host Yappy Hours on the hillside where people let their dogs run and play together, while also providing water and treats. Also, during the summer, they'll sometimes host pool parties where all the dogs get to jump in the pool and play with each other. Despite the amount of dogs that live in the complex, I've never been bothered by barking dogs and never have had to worry about dog poop everywhere. All of us were owners in the same community, so there was much respect and responsibility!
* Hosted Events. They often hosted events in the clubhouse where there were themed parties, or just free food offered. This wasn't once a quarter or once a month; it was more like several times a week. Examples are where they'd provide free donuts from 8-11am from a great local donut shop, or during lunchtimes they'd provide all the fixings for you to come and make your own sandwiches. Great benefit for "starving students".
* Pool and Gym. Their gym wasn't an LA Fitness, but it was pretty good for an apartment complex. They have a few treadmills, bikes, and ellipticals. The weight room is better, though. It actually has a decent selection of free weight and cable machines. Definitely enough for a good lift. Afterwards, take a dip in the outdoor pool. I don't think it was heated in any way, because it was always cold, but this wasn't too bad during Virginia summers when its 90 degrees out.
* Tenants. I never had any issues with any of my neighbors. This, actually, was a great surprise to me. I'm not old, but at 31, I'm older than all the kids in college. My neighbors, however, weren't 18 and 19 year olds. The audience at Windsor Hills was primarily graduate students, a few teachers, or people like me that didn't attend school but were somehow connected. There were a few undergraduate students in my building, but mostly seniors. Regardless of age or situation, not once did I experience loud parties, drunk people stumbling back at night, or any other disruption. Even at the height of football season, I never saw any rambunctious behavior. Shocking!
CON:
* Parking. Honestly, coming from Seattle, I didn't find the parking that bad. But I can see how some would get annoyed at times. During the summer, or on Friday nights, parking is wiiiide open. But during the school year, it can get full after about 6pm. My building wasn't so bad due to its location, but down the way, I could see that people sometimes struggled to find parking out front.
* Laundry Machines. This is a semi-con that could easily be a pro all the way. Each building has one to two washers and dryers in the basement. Very convenient versus going to a central location or a laundromat. My issue is that they're all coin operated and there's no on-site change machine. I once lived at a place that had machines that read cards that you could load money onto. Or, like a laundromat, they could have change machines. But everyone had their own solution. I would go to an actual laundromat and get a few handfuls of quarters. Others would go to a bank and get rolls of quarters. Not a major hiccup, but kind of annoying when you want to do laundry and then realize you don't have a dozen quarters on hand.
Those are about the only two cons, and they're stretching it. It was a real joy living here during my stay in Blacksburg. To wrap it up, I have to say my end was nice as well. Easy staff to deal with and I got all of my deposit back. Not bad for living in an apartment for two years with a 85lb dog. Kudos for Windsor Hills. Check them out if you need a place to stay.