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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.
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