Ramayana Apts

Let’s put up a gate and jack up the rent by 25% or some stupid figure along those lines. I understand it’s seattle and rent is rising and this place is in cap hill, but Ramayana is still an old, cheap building that is in poor condition. Who was it that came up with the newer interior design with those carpets and orange wallpaper. Straight out of the shining. Management could not care less about its tenants, only dollars.

This place is undergoing a pretty massive overhaul. Every apartment coming up for rent is going to be renovated (I currently live in one of these renovated units).
Let’s start with the fun stuff (PROS):
–There is an elevator! Somehow, it managed to fit my giant couch.
–The actual neighbors are pretty quiet, or at least, the walls are thick enough you don’t hear much from the shared walls.
–Some units have wood burning fireplaces, which look great (but may take up a good bit of space in your living room, and will raise your renters insurance just a smidge)
–Renovations involve putting down a nice vinyl «wood» floor throughout everywhere but the bedroom. It looks nice, doesn’t scratch as easily as actual wood. The bedroom has a fairly industrial grade carpet (short weave) that isn’t hard to clean.
–New cabinet covers for an updated bright white kitchen, with what seems to be faux granite counters, all new appliances (the fridge is on the small side, even for one person if you like to cook).
–During the day, there is plenty of natural light from the sunshine in the living room through the giant window out to the entire balcony. This is great, and makes the space seem about 4 ½ ft longer.
–There is a little ‘dining’ area directly next to the kitchen.
–Well designed floor plan lets guests enter the living space without having to enter through the kitchen.
–I love the balcony.
–I have a skylight in the kitchen (my plants are happy about that)
–Bathroom was renovated (I haven’t had any issue with mold, but the shower seems prone to leaking despite my best efforts. This water all pools behind the toilet where it may not be noticed if you have a trashcan back there)
–Bedroom is a really decent size. Queen/​king bed fits nicely with plenty of room for nightstands.
–Brand new closet organizing system!
–Washer and dryers on every floor, $ 1 per load per machine
–Extra storage space/​closet for every apartment.
–Renovations meant brand new blinds. Black-​out shade in the bedroom, and nice full coverage shades in the living room.
–Building manager might be one of the coolest/​calmest folks ever.
Ok, now for the nasty stuff (CONS):
–Ventilation is a problem. I can’t seem to cool this place down without leaving every window/​door open and an industrial fan on high. I haven’t lived here long enough to need a heater, so I’ll update with that in a few months.
–The construction across the street starts before 7am 6 days a week. and it’s LOUD. Since I have to keep the windows open for any sort of fresh air, the noise is that much louder. At least it’ll be open soon (I hope.)
–The front door seems to be the biggest weakness, in terms of noise. It might actually act as an echo chamber for any noise in the hallway. Any conversations a neighbor has in the hall will be clearly heard, even over the noise from the construction in the front.
–Remember that whole ‘All apartments are being renovated’ bit? This means there are workers on every floor with the apartment doors open, blaring music while they work. Lots of noise on either side. It’s a bit much.
–The kitchen cabinets inside haven’t been renovated, just had new faces put on. It’s shitty plywood, and my silverware drawer has a cracked bottom that they didn’t seem to care about. Lots of splinters. I put down contact paper after cleaning it all thoroughly, which helped. The drawers are all pretty awful, and most don’t close readily without some shoving.
–The dust from the construction across the street leaves my floors nasty. Even with regularly mopping, it’s pretty bad. Just be warned: living here in summer means a lot of housekeeping if you want your floors kept reasonably clean/​your furniture hot covered in street/​construction crud.
–The bathroom cabinets weren’t cleaned out before I moved in. I found toothpaste bits and hairpins, along with old nasty contact paper. (yay, I love cleaning up after other people before I can unpack. Guess the hired cleaning crew missed that bit.)
–I’ve lived here about two months, and I still don’t have a number on my door. :(This becomes amusing when friends come to visit.
–Neighbors bitterly complain about management raising rent prices to try to force them out.
–Rent is a bit high for what you get, and with this noise, it’s really frustrating. If you like to sleep in, this isn’t the place for you (until the construction is over)
–Kitchen is really narrow. There are nice, new appliances, but there isn’t any counter space. If you have a microwave, prepare to use your dinning area as an extended kitchen.

I lived here for about a year. The apartment was huge (well, common space was huge, bedrooms were medium sized) and not terribly expensive. Location was great, and they have parking (that you pay for, but that’s still better than my current place). I barely ever heard a peep from my neighbors — I’m not sure if that was because they were all old or if the apartment just did a good job of blocking noise. There are coin operated (cheap bastards…) laundry machines on every floor.
It was pretty unattractive — dingy carpet, old melamine cabinetry, etc. One wall was solid windows, and all the other walls had essentially teeny little port holes. So not a lot of natural light in the bedrooms. But the real problem was the mold. The apartment didn’t seem to be able to ventilate. I’m assuming it was a combination of the lack of windows and broken ventilation systems for the bathrooms. But we had a nearly constant supply of mold. Not fun.
The building manager was somewhat responsive to our problems, but seemed powereless in attempting to fix the mold problem.
All in all, an OK place if you are desperate, but I wouldn’t want to live there for a long period of time.

Living here was a joy. Screaming neighbors, black mold everywhere since the place was always damp for no discernible reason, a super who just could not be bothered to fix anything (like a heater that was perpetually on regardless of setting, a broken bath spout, broken dishwasher, leaking ceiling, broken blinds, broken closet poles — all of which I was assured would be fixed before move-​in), very little return on the deposit despite the move-​in/​move-​out sheets… I’m sure there’s more if I think about it but living there drove me to drink and my memory’s not what it used to be. The three reasons this place gets 2 stars instead of negative a million hell points: rent price, parking, and a balcony. Still not worth it.

Nice sturdy building. Very spacious apt with beautiful views of downtown. Covered parking and a great super. For a place to call home, it’ll do.