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Moving up from the efficiencies
are one-bedroom apartments, in which one bedroom is separate
from the rest of the apartment. Then there are two-bedroom,
three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have
only one entrance.
Large apartments often have two entrances, perhaps a door in
the front and another in the back. Depending on the building
design, the entrance doors may be directly to the outside or
to a common area inside, such as a hallway. Depending on
location, apartments may be available for rent furnished with
furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with their own furniture.
A garden apartment complex consists of low-rise apartment
buildings built with landscaped grounds surrounding them. The
apartment buildings are often arranged around courtyards that
are open at one end. A garden apartment has some
characteristics of a townhouse: each apartment has its own
building entrance, or just a few apartments share a small
foyer or stairwell at each building entrance. Unlike a
townhouse, each apartment occupies only one level. Modern
garden apartment buildings are never more than three stories
high, since they typically don't have elevators. However, the
first "garden apartment" buildings in the United States,
developed in the early 20th century, were five stories high.
Some garden apartment buildings place a one-car garage under
each apartment. The grounds are more landscaped than for other
modestly scaled apartments.
Another definition of "garden apartment" is a unit built half
below grade or at ground level. The implication is that there
is a view or direct access to a garden from the apartment, but
this is not necessarily the case.
Laundry facilities may be found in a common area accessible to
all the tenants in the building, or each apartment may have
its own facilities. Depending on when the building was built
and the design of the building, utilities such as water,
heating, and electricity may be common for all the apartments
in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant. Outlets for connection to
telephones are typically included in apartments. Telephone
service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and
similar amenities are extra also.
Parking spaces, air conditioner,
and extra storage space may or may not be included with an
apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number of
people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the
ground floor of the apartment building, a series of mailboxes
are typically kept in a location accessible to the public and,
thus, to the mailman too. Every unit typically gets its own
mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large apartment
buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the
mailman and provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes
or some other location accessible by outsiders, there may be a
buzzer for each individual unit. In smaller apartment
buildings such as two- or three-flats, or even four-flats,
garbage is often disposed of in trash containers similar to
those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is often
collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness
or minimizing noise, many lessors will place restrictions on
tenants regarding keeping pets in an apartment. |
