Laurel Trace Apartment Homes

When I was searching for apartments in Durham, I checked this one out. I immediately crossed it off the list because the floorplan for the big one-​bedroom, despite having a lot of square feet for a very affordable amount, was a terrible use of space. Two of my best friends, though, did decide to live here for a year in one of their 2-​bedrooms. And as I’m a frequent cat-​sitter for them and moocher of food and movies, I was also a frequent houseguest. The landscaping is pretty nice — the units cover a lot of ground, and in the center there’s a lake with a fountain and even some geese. The complex has two pools — neither of which ever seemed to be open! The smaller one was closed all last summer for no apparent reason, and the bigger one was often down due to pH issues. One thing that drove me crazy was the layout. Their building was pretty close to the front of the property, but to get to it you had to drive allll the way to the back of the property and then circle around to the inside — there’s also an unnecessary traffic circle thing you had to go through. Just time-​consuming is all. Ok, back to the apartments at hand. Their unit was a nice size and not too shabby — the appliances are on the old side, though, and could use an update. They had a laundry room and a decent-​sized porch, which are definitely two pluses in my book. So, in sum: not terrible, but definitely not great.