Brandywine Apartments

I found the kids delightful! I don't know how the previous reviewer had such a different experience. My neighbors were an Indian family (including grandma) with one child, a couple of Hispanic families, and a police officer (white/Anglo) and his family. I mention ethnicity only to point to the diversity of the place, which for me was great – learned some spicy recipes.



Brandywine is okay and as best as it could be in a town like Delano. I needed a quiet place for the year; I had to be in this area for career purposes, and for that it served its purposes. It is near a Kmart, though I never shopped there (too crowded). Brandywine was quiet, but at certain hours of the day, typically evenings when it was still light out, I heard children playing outside. To me it was a sweet sound, reminded me of times when I had not a care in the world, and my highest goal was learning how to skate and turn the curve without falling. It is on County Line Rd., a major road used for all types of purposes, so if your apt. is in certain parts of the complex, you will hear occasional sounds of cars, semi-trucks, etc. You also hear a train about once a day or once a week -- can't remember. I happen to like train sounds, so this was fine by me.



Near Brandywine there are two taco trucks. The one on the corner of Randolph and County Line is better (good meat, fresh ingredients) and during certain parts of the year (Spring/Summer) a fruit truck will be near it selling the best mangos, among other things. The taco truck has a little table next to it that is shaded by almond trees. Pretty knowledgeable taco guy too – he taught me some fascinating things about almond trees (there’s a whole field of them next to the taco truck). The Central Valley has such rich resources like the almond tree, it’s too bad some towns have gone through tough economic upheaval.



Grocery shopping: If you live here, shop at Vallarta on the corner of Randolph and Cecil -- very cheerful, well stocked store. The other Vallarta is too crowded and is in the middle of the most economically depressed part of town, which, for Delano, is pretty bad.



My only two complaints are:

1) They don't allow pets (although I knew of someone who secretly kept a snake -- a science and reptile enthusiast).

2) The second complaint is that they need brand new trash cans and better recycling signs (and they should make them bilingual). However, the old trash cans may be the fault of the city, not the apartment complex, but they should at least have the recycling signs in more than one language –why not educate all of their tenants for the purpose of recycling?



Amenities:

1) Laundry place on site (quarters needed), one laundry room on each side of the complex. Never crowded. It got vandalized at one point by someone who stole the security cameras. It used to be open 24hrs. and they have changed their policy to closing by 10pm. (I still felt safe after the vandalism -- they had a manager or security guy nearby the laundry rooms for a while after that. And some tenants have lived here over 20 yrs. and they seemed pretty happy. I met a high school football coach and his wife who was a teacher – both had lived here that long. I also met another couple who had lived here over 10 yrs.)

2) Parking: shaded parking for tenants, unshaded parking for visitors.

3) Gym: small gym on each side of the complex -- the treadmill never worked, but other machines did. Shower area included in the gym.

3) Pool: I never used it, lots of kids in it in the summer. Seemed like a nice pool. I think they have two – one on the west side and one on the east side.

4) Landscaping: that was truly a nice part of the complex – made up for their lousy recycling and old trash cans. Beautiful flowers! It's what made me hike up the rating to 5 stars, but really more of a 3 to 4 star place depending on what you value.