Serenity at Briarcrest

kathleen oreilly

Give this place a miss. It is falling down due to neglect. The cracked sidewalks and potholes in the parking lots are hazardous. The windows leak, the brickwork needs repointing, the apartments are dark and outdated. The grounds look like a well-used dog park.

Anita

I have been to Waldenbrooke Estates visiting residents. The apartments were nice sized, and I know they're updating the decor. I can't tell what they're doing now simply because I couldn't go, but they sent me a video. The marketing director showed a video of one of the one-bedroom apartments, which I was interested in. My friend's apartment was clean, and she had so much stuff in there. She had a whole wall full of bookcases. It was a nice size. It's not what you would call large, but it was comfortable in size. I just felt the kitchens were kind of small and not updated. There were walkways between the buildings that are covered with a metal type canopy cover, but you have to go outside. I know they have activities and a small library. It was clean. She's not on the food plan there. She does her own food and she doesn't eat in the dining room. They don't have washer and dryer hookups in the units. I would like to have that instead of using the communal laundry.

Bridgette

My parents moved into Waldenbrooke Estates. We're in a little bit of a predicament now because they were not completely honest with us. They have now sold to a new company, and they are completely restructuring as of November 4. So, while everything just seemed to work out, I think that they will be staying there at Walden Brooke, but it's being taken over by another company and restructuring, and they're completely eliminating dining and transportation services. They do believe that they'll be staying. It has been a bit of a challenge with figuring out meals and everything now, since we were promised three meals a day. They will be staying, and it is a nice, safe facility. The new company is taking over. They are going to be doing a lot of the new renovations. The upkeep on the property itself has not been the best. However, maintenance has been excellent. As soon as there's an issue, they're there within an hour to fix something. It is an older facility that does need a lot of renovations, but the employees there are wonderful. What I like most is their safety; they're in a safe community. The main thing is that they're safe, and I don't have to worry about them. It's all seniors there, everything is handicap accessible to you. The first priority would be their safety. I rate them that, mainly with being pleased with the staffing, and other maintenance employees that are working there. At this point, they can improve on just being more open, and providing more communication to the residents there. That's really the main thing that improvements are needed on.

Jon

I like Waldenbrooke Estates a lot. They have probably more facilities than we really need at this point, so it was nice that there were options. The staff was nice too. The layout though was a little confusing, but I suspect after a couple of weeks of being there, it would make more sense. Although they talk about having residents that are 55 and older, I think it's pretty obvious that the people who actually live there are 70 and up. There were very, very few people that were younger than 75 or 80. Nothing negative about that; but if you want to fit in, you're going to have to be 74 and above. They could really benefit from things like garages or having some covered parking at the back. Their parking is not real convenient. They use their shuttle bus most of the time. Since a lot of these people are in their 70s and 80s, it's their way to get around. My parents are both in their 80s, but they absolutely refuse to give up their cars. They're driving, although they probably shouldn't. For my mom, it would be more beneficial to have more parking that's closer to the apartment versus the shuttle bus.

Charles

I visited Waldenbrooke Estates, and the people I met there seemed pretty nice. Everything was pretty accessible and the rooms were clean. We saw the workout area and it was kind of small, but for the elderly, I guess it would do. The great room is pretty nice too. It's a place where they could play a little bingo or something.

Anna

I like Waldenbrooke Estates. The lady was really nice and very informative. They were very conscientious about the fact that it's Covid. She had gloves on, and we both had our masks on. I like the idea that even though they can't use a lot of the facilities because you can't have all the people together, the buildings are set up like in a square, so there's an open area in the middle. The residents can still do exercise. They come out onto their balconies, or on the bottom floor, they come out on the little sidewalk. The person who leads the little exercises stands in the very middle in the little courtyard. They had a pool, a gym, and they had a place to do haircut. They offer different events throughout the year, but because of Covid, all these things have been shutdown and they can't do, but even though they can't, they still try to figure out ways to make sure that the residents still are taken care of, still have a sense of community, and people are still checking on each other. They can't go to the dining facility and eat in the cafeteria, so there is somebody who comes around and brings all the meals individually in Styrofoam for all of the residents. One of the residents came out and said, "I can't get my food, I'm trying to call the office, I wasn't here I guess when they came by or I didn't hear them." The staff got on her phone, called the office, and made sure they were making the delivery. Even the residents themselves, they seem to know each other very well. If somebody is not around or somebody hasn't come out, they have a sense of community, and check, and say something to the manager or to the office. I was very impressed.

Debbie downer

When one complains about the noise/stomping from above apts or the grand brats running wild you’re told “that’s apt living”, the grounds, lighting and other assorted things aren’t taken care of, and the lighting around and nod the grounds are terrible at best. There is a pool but you’re not allowed to use it and it isn’t handicapped accessible. Don’t believe the lies

Lori

Waldenbrooke Estates was OK. I didn’t have a problem with the staff. The rooms were beautiful. They had bingo, outings for meals, and bands coming in. The facility was good and had three meals a day.

Norma

We stayed at Waldenbrooke Estates before. It was nice, clean, and I loved the sit-down exercises once a week. The service and food were good, and the staff was nice. It was older, and it wasn't full, but they're taking good care of it.

Sandra S.

Waldenbrooke Estates is clean and well-kept. They have nice programs and there's transportation available. The staff and the food are really great. They take the residents on outings on the bus to the aquarium, big restaurants, and other couple of places over Franklin. Twice a week they go to the grocery store, you can go in the morning or in the afternoon if you don't want to wake up so early. The pricing is also good for what you get. This place is doing a pretty good job, and some people have been there for 10-15 years already.

Betty811342

I liked the Waldenbrooke better because it had a bedroom, and then you could get one that had a sunroom and an enclosed patio. It was more like an apartment where you had your own outside entrance. I liked that, and I felt more like I would be living in an apartment complex than in a home type where it had the inside doors. It was a little older, but I liked the fact that they had a swimming pool in the center, everybody had their own outside doors, and it felt more like an apartment.

John713470

We toured Waldenbrooke Estates, and everything seemed fine. The rooms were large and had two big closets. The only thing that we saw that we didn’t really care for was you had to go outside to go to the dining facility, so it wasn’t all on one floor. Everybody was very nice and very pleasant. It was totally independent living, so if you have to go into assisted living, you have to move out.

MargieWQKVS

We looked at Waldenbrooke Estates. It was a nice facility, but we have two dogs, and the unit that we were going to have to get in order to have a little fenced in patio wasn’t that attractive. I got a copy of their monthly activities, and it looked like they were a lot more active than I wanted. We had an excellent, tasty lunch there. The table setting was nice. The staff was extremely friendly, welcoming, supportive, and encouraging. We'd only have to pay a one-time pet deposit, not a monthly charge like a lot of other facilities charge. We would be able to have two pets and weren’t limited to the size of the pets, so that was one thing that impressed me about Waldenbrooke Estates.

Resident 1010

Waldenbrooke Estate is great, especially if you don’t need any personal help. They serve three meals a day, and the food is good. It’s clean and nice, and the staff is helpful.

Glenda15

Waldenbrooke Estates was very nice. My mom was way past going to that kind of the place because residents had to do pretty much everything for themselves, and she can’t do that anymore. The staff was very nice.

Jan111875250

I visited Waldenbrooke Estates for my sister. It was an older facility, but it was very clean. The people there were very nice, and they had a lot of good activities going on. All of the apartments were a little bit older, but they were very well done, very clean, and accessible to the elevator and to the gathering area. The people that I met that work there were extremely nice. They called me several times. Waldenbrooke Estates would be my number 1 place.

anonymous102253850

Waldenbrooke Estates was very nice, and the staff was super nice. It was fine except for the fact that all of their rooms open outside, and the residents have to walk outside to go to the dining room. That was one thing I did not particularly like about it, and it was strictly independent living.

Caring062904

We visited Waldenbrooke and their staff were very nice and accommodating, but they were just too expensive. The dining room is spacious. All of them had a lot of spaces to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers. The dining smelled very good with the chef cooking every time we went there. They have a lot of activities which was written in a huge wall and all the residents have to do is look at it.

Caring534499

If we would have chosen anything it would have been them. When I have spoken with the representative with regard to fitting our need, they've always been very polite and agreeable to different situations. They're willing to consider any possibility and they're ready to try to accommodate. However, I would really like to see them have a transitional type of offering, since they are maybe 3 or 4 blocks from the hospital. So if you're there and you're with a parent or a husband or wife, and their health may go down, something that transitions from the independent living to assisted living to possibly like a nursing facility. Because let's face it in those kind of situation most generally when elderly people get there, it usually is a transition. I would like to see something like that especially being so close to the hospital. So the one resident who's healthy can continue to visit the husband or wife and not have to worry about driving to the facility. The pricing is very reasonable. I wouldn't have any qualms going there or anything. It's just that we're looking at a different direction for my mom.