Abberly Place Blog

We are SUPER EXCITED to announce that your property, Abberly Place in Raleigh, NC took home the biggest award given at our annual awards banquet yesterday for COMMUNITY OF THE YEAR!!! This is an award that we share with you all.

We did have two individual awards given yesterday as well. Both Eric Bogacki and Lauren Booker were awarded Team Spirit awards for outstanding customer service and positive attitude about their community and work. We could not be happier as a team to share this with you all.

Your apartment in Garner, NC is the perfect place to make friends and meet people in your community. And it is the perfect season for it too.

Get outside and enjoy the pool. If you are new to the area and don’t know anyone, or if you just want to meet others, this is a great place to start. Every day, members of your apartment community are at the pool beating the heat. Get an impromptu game of water polo started with people you don’t know. A fun game is a great way to break the ice.

Get outside and enjoy the grill area. Grill up some finger foods or fun appetizers and invite passersby to have a taste.

If you enjoy cooking, or want to try some fun recipes, start a supper club. Put up a community post and see if there are any others who would like to join. Alternate each dinner night in different apartments within your community. Have themes if you’d like, such as seafood night, appetizers and wine night or Mardi Gras.

Be creative in how you try to meet people. There are surely others who want to meet the neighbors too.

Tornadoes are very quick and usually come without much notice, having your plan in place will protect you and the items in your apartment. First and foremost, once you hear that there is a possible tornado near your apartment, or that the conditions are right for a tornado, head to shelter immediately.

If you live in an apartment that is on an upper floor, get to the lowest possible level of the building immediately. This could be an underground parking garage, a community room, or a neighbor’s first floor apartment. If you live in a high-rise apartment building, you may not have enough time to get to a lower level, so picking a place in the hallway in the center of your building is the best idea. If you are in your apartment during a tornado, a closet, bathroom or interior hall without windows is the safest spot to be.

Also ask your apartment leasing manager if there are any storm shelters in your apartment community.

Tornado Safety: Other Apartment Safety Tips

Once you have relocated to a safe place, lie down on the floor and cover yourself up with pillows, blankets and even mattresses for protection from falling objects and debris. If your apartment’s safe place has a heavy piece of furniture, such as a large table, get under that for extra protection. Wearing a bike helmet or other helmet will help protect your head from injuries caused by flying debris.

It is also a great idea to keep an evacuation kit handy. This kit should include a portable radio, flashlight with extra batteries, credit card and cash, first aid kit, spare set of keys, personal identification and anything else of importance or value to you. Having all of this together near your apartment safe place or near your door will save you time and worry during a tornado threat.

Tornado Safety: After the Tornado
If a tornado does come near your apartment, please use extreme caution when exiting your home. Watch out for fallen utility lines and tree limbs that may not have fallen yet. Make sure that everyone is alright and provide assistance to your neighbors that may need attention. Finally, remember to take pictures of your property damage for an insurance claim, if necessary.

Could the next Roommate of the Year be living at Abberly Place? We think so because the best apartment home communities have the best residents! But, you only have until June 13, 2011 to submit your video entry to www.RoommateOfTheYear.com for a shot at living rent free! For the third year, Apartments.com is searching for acts of roommate excellence. Submit a video of 2 minutes or less, illustrating what makes you America's most desirable roommate and you could walk away with FREE Rent for a Year, $10,000 in cold, hard cash, a year membership to FreeCreditScore.com and the coveted title of Roommate of the Year.

Calling all Abberley Place residents! To register, visit www.RoommateOfTheYear.com for full details on the Contest and to view previous Hall of Fame entries for inspiration like the one below from 2010!

If you are relocating to the Raleigh North Carolina area, you are in luck. Of all of the cities in the South, this one is close to the top. With a great climate you will enjoy warm summers and mild winters. Not to mention, there are both mountains and beaches within traveling distance! Whether you enjoy sitting in the sun listening to the waves or the quietness and beauty of the mountains, you will find both when you move to Raleigh.
 
Raleigh, the "City of Oaks," is the capital of North Carolina and has much to offer in great college sports teams: NC State, Duke, and the beloved Carolina Tar Heels. The professional sports teams include the NHL Carolina Hurricanes and NFL Carolina Panthers. Downtown Raleigh is broken up into 5 districts and is all the rage for night clubs, dance clubs, and bars, plus terrific restaurants. With many things to see and do, the free hybrid electric bus service can connect you to museums, dining and shopping.
 
So if you are a hiker, or sports fanatic, enjoy nightlife or a good restaurant you will love Raleigh and Abberly Place Apartment Homes.  Abberly Place represents a new style of living in a beautiful, neighborly community with upscale offerings, unmatched location and easy access to bustling Downtown Raleigh. We offer residents many community amenities and proximity to Raleigh, while providing comfort and scenery at home. The mountains are a few hours west and the ocean a few hours east, both make for great weekend trips and the city has so much to offer. Welcome to your new home, Raleigh.

At Abberly Place, we love our dogs, and many of you do to, so we thought we would share this great video with you called “Denver Our Guilty Dog”. Have you seen it?



Oftentimes, our furry friends make the best roommates. Many apartment home communities do not allow pets, but we love our pets at Abberly Place! You are welcome to have either dogs or cats, but no aggressive breeds please. If it is a caged pet you want, such as a rabbit or hamster, they are welcome in your new apartment home too. You can have 2 dogs or a total of three pets per apartment.  We look forward to meeting you and your four legged friends. Please contact us with any questions you may have.

When you are changing apartments, or relocating for a job, one of the biggest challenges is selecting the right apartment. It is difficult to anticipate future needs right now, but you do know how you feel at the end of a day, what you like to do on weekends, and the feeling you want when you get home from work and it is time to relax. There is no exact answer to what you will need in the future, no one has a crystal ball that works, but at least there are some key factors that you should keep in mind when you are looking.

The first thing is you need to consider is your monthly budget. Setting your budget first helps narrow down your options. This way you can avoid wasting time on random apartments that don't suit your needs.
 
The next is location, location, location. And, whether you have kids or not, area activities and the neighborhood are big factors; can you easily drive to area shopping, dining, and sporting events? Also take into consideration your commute. Abberly Place is minutes from downtown Raleigh. Frequently named one of the best places to live, Raleigh boasts an abundance of outstanding restaurants, dynamic nightspots, cultural entertainment, recreational opportunities, sophisticated retail and Southern charm. Although you might be too busy when you first move in to take advantage, you will want to explore soon enough.
 
Even if you have a vehicle, it is important to know if there are activities within walking distance from your new home.  North Carolina has wonderful weather, mild winters and warm summers, and you will want to take advantage.

Speak with the apartment staff.  You need to decide by looking at your potential new home, get the feel for what may be your new environment. Make an appointment and pay a visit. You will want to see what amenities are offered and what kind of community exists at your new apartment home. The 9 foot ceilings, gorgeous crown molding, two resort-style pools and state-of-the-art fitness centers at Abberly Place will make you feel luxurious and what a great place to come home to.
 
At the end of the day, your satisfaction about your move will depend on what the location and the neighborhood community has to offer. Not only the interior of the apartment itself, but also the broad array of services and amenities available for your enjoyment. Make an appointment to visit Abberly Place today.

We have all seen all the reports on the news, in the paper and talked about the rising number of bed bug cases throughout the country.  Bed Bugs have certainly made a come back in the last few decades.  There are several reasons for this resurgence.  The first reason is for a rise in infestation is the removal of DDT as a pest control deterrent.  DDT was found to be a carcinogenic and was banned by the Federal Government.  The second reason is more international travel.  Although bed bugs had almost been eradicated in the US, their infestation was still prevalent in other parts of the world.  With more international travel and the absence of DDT as a pest control option, bed bugs made their triumphant return to the US.  Misinformed people believed that this pest is brought on by being unclean.  This couldn’t be more incorrect.  Cleanliness has nothing to do with an infestation, bed bugs do not like dirt, they like humans.  Another interesting fact about bed bugs is unlike mosquitoes, bed bugs do not transfer disease.  Bed bugs can also live dormant up to a year without a human host. 

So how do you protect yourself against an infestation?  The first thing to do is to know where bed bugs are found.  Bed bugs are nocturnal so typically come out while we are sleeping and become dormant during the day in most cases.  They hide under the mattress, under the bed tag on your bed, inside your electronics, inside your picture frames, on top of door jams, in piles of clothes, and behind the head board of beds.  This is just a short list of places they hide.  Bed bugs can be found in other areas too.  The Commonwealth of Virginia came out with things to do while traveling:

One of the most common ways of encountering bed bugs is during travel. Whether traveling in the United States or internationally, there are hundreds of places where your luggage might come in contact with bed bugs. Bed bugs might be in your hotel room, in the trunk of the taxi, in the luggage compartment of the airplane, or in the baggage
handling facility at the airport. While you may not be able to control your bag’s travel experience, you can inspect your hotel room before your sleep there, and you can inspect your luggage prior to bringing it into your home. Inspecting your hotel room for bed bugs is very important for protecting yourself against bed bug bites as well as preventing bed bugs from infesting your bag. Hotel infestations are typically focused near the bed, so a quick inspection of the mattress and head board is generally enough for you to determine if bed bugs are present. Before opening your suitcase:

Hotel room inspection:

• Pull back all of the bedding at the head of the bed near the head board to look for bed bugs or their fecal stains on the mattress (usually several black spots in a group)
• Check the underside of the mattress tag
• Check the seams of the mattress and the boxsprings
• If possible remove the head board from the wall and inspect the back of it, particularly the holes for set-in screws and the plate that allows the head board to hang from the wall.
• If bed bug evidence is found, report it to the management and ask for another room.

To protect your luggage:

• Do not place your suitcase on the spare bed
• Inspect the luggage stand (where the straps are attached to the metal bars) and place your bag on the stand away from the wall.
• Keep your clothing in your bag, do not unpack and place your belongings in drawers
• Using a flashlight, give a quick check to the closet for bed bug evidence before hanging clothes
• Place your shoes in an open area, not under the bed or in the closet
• Upon returning home, unpack your luggage immediately in some location other than the bed room (bathroom, garage, mud room, foyer etc.). Launder all clothing.
• Using a flashlight, inspect your bag for bed bugs.
• If you have reason to believe that your bag did encounter bed bugs, place your suitcase in a plastic bag. If the weather is warm, the bag with the suitcase can be put out in the hot sun or in the hot car for a day.
• Alternatively, a fumigant strip (NoPest® strip) can be put inside the bag to chemically treat the suitcase. You can also purchase a collapsible heat chamber designed for heat treating luggage (PackTite Portable Bed bug Killing Unit™).
• Although it is not always practical, using a soft bag like a duffel style bag or gym bag when traveling will allow you to put the bag in the dryer when you get home.

By far the most common method of developing a bed bug infestation is by bringing used furniture into your home. Used furniture comes in many forms, and while picking up a nice looking mattress sitting next to the dumpster may be an obvious risk, storing your son’s furniture when he moves home from college may not be so obvious. Bed bugs can infest many items. We do not allow folks to dispose of furniture items at our compactors to help deter the spread of bed bugs. 

To protect yourself:

• Never take any furniture from a dumpster no matter how good it looks. The better it looks the more likely it is to be infested with bed bugs.
• Do not purchase refurbished mattresses or couches.
• Do not purchase furniture at a garage sale or antique store without carefully inspecting it first.
• Never store anyone’s furniture in your home.
• Do not purchase used books without first inspecting them.
• If you purchase a new mattress (or any piece of furniture), do not have it delivered to your home. Often the same trucks that deliver new mattresses, also take the old (potentially infested) mattresses away. So your new mattress might pick up bed bugs on the truck.
• If you are helping a friend move, or transporting other people’s belonging for any reason, be sure to inspect your vehicle once the belongings have been removed. While bed bugs do not typically survive the heat of a car during the warmer months, the car is an excellent bed bug habitat during the cooler weather.

So what do you do if you find bed bugs in your home?  Number one thing is do not freak out.  If you are living in an apartment home, report to your management office immediately.  If you can, trap one of the insects in a plastic bag so that the licensed professional can determine what insect they need to treat.  You should also try to recall where you found or saw the insect.  Do not try home remedies or pesticides in your apartment.  This can further the infestation into other people’s home and make it more difficult to treat.  Extermination of bed infestation needs to be done by a licensed professional.  Typically, most licensed professionals use several methods at one time when treating bed bugs.  This method has been found to be the best way to eradicate the problem.  Those three steps usually involve a neurotoxin, heat (typically steam above 117 degrees) and crushed shell solution that is put in the walls.  They also typically use a specific type of mattress cover on the bed and box spring that had the activity.  That mattress cover should be kept on the bed for the life of the mattress/box spring.  Exterminating bed bugs at the beginning stages of infestation is much easier to treat and eradicate than waiting until the problem has gotten really out of hand.  

There are signs that you might have a bed bug issue.  If you notice brown or red spots on your sheets, this could possible be from bites or fecal matter left behind from the insect.  If you find insect bites on you in the morning after you wake up, there is a chance you might have bed bugs.  They typically bite in areas that are softer parts of your skin such as the stomach, under part of your arms, thighs, and face/neck.  In most cases, it will be a series of three bites in a row. For the most part, the bites will be similar to a mosquito bite  but some folks have bruised from it.  Obviously seeing the bugs in your home is an obvious indicator.  

There are a lot of myths out there about this insect and a lot of paranoia.  Being aware of how they travel, common places to pick them up and what to do if you find them is the upmost important thing.  We will all know people in the next 10 years that has been effected by bed bugs.  We can protect ourselves by being diligent.    

We all need a place to call home but even with the real estate downturn, many people continue to think that buying a home is a good investment and a way for them to build wealth. When times were good, this was not really the case for most people.  Wherever you choose to live, make sure it’s for the right reasons. Owning a home can be rewarding. Renting an apartment home with Abberly Place can also be very rewarding. Don’t just take our word for it – check out this article on Yahoo Finance – Why Your Home is not the investment you think it is. In recent months, the housing market, interest rates and the economy have been the focus of many news stories and are key issues in the political arena. Consumers have been inundated for years with visions of the American Dream and why home ownership is a great investment. As seen with the recent housing crisis, home ownership may not be right for everyone.

• If you bought in Rochester, N.Y., in 1980, you would have seen only a mediocre 4% annual growth for the next 25 years.
• If you bought in Dallas in 1986, as the oil boom went bust, your home wouldn’t have appreciated at all before 1998.

It is also important to look at the “net appreciation”.  Most people do not subtract all of the interest paid to the banks, maintenance, decorating costs, closing costs, taxes, and insurance from the appreciation.  In many cases, especially if you do not own your home for more than a few years, there is not true appreciation and in more and more cases, there is negative appreciation.  Many do not realize the real financial and practical advantages HHHunt residents experience every year when they decide to rent an apartment home at one of our communities. There are just a couple of points to consider and think about. Renting is a long term investment and very rewarding. Especially in the North Carolina area we are a respected and very diverse community. Be sure to take a look at our communities and our activities we have to offer. Our unique apartment homes at Abberly Place combine convenience, comfort, and technology for today’s lifestyle in our apartment homes. Our beautiful interiors are designed to optimize the way you live, work, and play. Contact us today to learn more about renting at Abberly Place, or feel free to stop in and take a tour of our community.

UPDATE: As of 17 Feb 11, all items are SOLD. Look for more deals in the future.

Dining Room table and chairs for sale. This was in our model so it has never really been used. Please visit www.abberlyplace.com to see furniture in the model.

* Photo above may differ from actual items being sold *

We are selling all three pieces including the glass top for only $100. We have a bedroom set that we will be selling soon... stay tuned for more information, call us at 877-567-9157 or stop by our office.

Apartments in Raleigh NC