Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria Santa Maria, CA

Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria was very clean and very neat. No buy-in dollar-wise. The individual cottages were very attractive and very roomy. The grounds were spacious and very well kept. It was a very nice place.

My dad has been in Merrill Gardens since January. It is really nice, and people are very friendly. My dad seems to like it OK, and so far so good. The staff is good. They're not medical qualified -- they are more like aides -- but it’s OK. I wish they had more medical experience. Dad is doing all right. He's in a shared room, and he didn’t care for that much. They have a lot of activities, like bingo and music, and they go on field trips. He's in a wheelchair, so it's little hard for him to get in and out of the bus. He just likes to watch TV, and they have a nice big screen TV.

Merrill Gardens was fine but too expensive for us. My dad needs more care than they can give. It's good for someone who is aged 75 to 95. They had independent living as well.

Everything at Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria is beautiful, and it's great. The place is wonderful, the food's great, and the tour was very good. It was bright, cheery, and very well planned out. It just was a very nice place, and I was impressed.

We visited Merrill Gardens. The gentleman that was there did not know we were coming, but he took a break and showed us around. When we got there, they were having a special lunch. He showed us around, but he had to leave, so I sat and talked with some of the people, wait staff, and the employees. It was very similar to where my mother lives now, but it was $1,000 cheaper. They had all types of activities, two big dining rooms, a pool, a spa, the hairdresser, and activities in the gym. The only thing that they did not have was the size room that she needed. They were very nice.

Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria looked like a very nice place. We liked it a lot. The staff seemed friendly and knowledgeable, but we didn’t see very many of them and didn’t really talk to anybody besides Gary. The cleanliness was excellent. The dining area and rooms that we saw were very nice.

Everything at Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria is wonderful. The staff is knowledgable, and answered all the questions we needed. The rooms were excellent; open, friendly, and in excellent shape. The food is excellent too. They have too many activites for my mom to participate in.

My parents will be moving in Merrill Gardens. This community has very high standards. They are very good, unlike the other facilities that I checked out. Everybody -- the staff and residents -- is friendly. I like them a lot. When we had lunch during our visit there, the residents turned around from their tables and told us that Merrill Gardens was a really happy and fun place to live. Their dining room reminds me of a crew ship on land. It opens from 7:00 to 7:00 and serves special meals every day. You can even tell them what you want in your salad bar and they put it on it. They have one-bedroom apartments, studios, and two-bedroom apartments. Everyone there has their own air conditioning and heating. They have a calendar of activities they do every day and do bus trips almost everyday. They have puzzle games to play, too. It's a very secure place, as well, because you have to sign in and out at the desk to get in. They have security guards, which very much impressed me!

Merrill Gardens was really nice with really nice activities, and you didn’t have to go outside to go to the dining hall; that was really nice. They have washers and dryers in the room, which was really nice. The one thing I didn’t like about it is that it had a kitchen; I wish they wouldn’t have kitchens in them because they don’t really use the kitchens, and they could use the place for something else. They all go down to the dining hall after all. The staff was very nice and good. The activities were really nice, and they take them to different places. We really like it.

The first one I visited was Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria. It is well-known in the area. They have a lot of features, and the units have a lot of features as well; those seemed good. The units were like a big apartment house. They have different sizes. Also they have a big dining area where anybody can go in and eat at any time from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. They have exercise classes, and they have transportation to and from doctors and shopping.

I visited Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria. We were very impressed because it is a beautiful place. It was expensive, but we kind of expected it to be. There was a living room, a bedroom, and a small kitchenette in some of them. We were looking more in the assisted living section. I was very impressed. It was very nice with a balcony on them. They offer a lot of amenities. They have crafts, meeting rooms, and exercise rooms. It looks like there was a lot of socialization going on. The people that we met were very pleasant and seemed happy. We didn't have a chance to taste the food at Merrill Gardens, but it seems very pleasant, and the residents were happy and contented. They were still very mobile in moving around. We were very impressed.

I think Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria is institutional. It is too big with three stories, and I don’t like that. The place is very, very clean. The rooms are very nice.

What I like about Merrill Gardens is that the grounds are large. There are a lot of outdoor areas. They have a pool and a garden area. The staff was very friendly. The rooms were very nice and spacious. They were also clean and very well kept.

My mom is all settled at the Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria. We had nothing, but really good experience. All of the staff is really nice and the facility is nice. The room is fine and I thought it was a good place. My mom is really happy and she likes it there. I like how the food and the dining is all day. They don't have a set mealtime, they can just go in and get food any time that they want. So it is more like home in some ways instead of having to stick to a schedule.

Merrill Gardens was the facility where my mother-in-law stayed. The place was just fabulous. There were tons of amenities. The food was delicious and tasty. The staff were just amazing. She was super happy there.

Nothing really impressed me about Merrill Gardens in Santa Maria. We had dinner there and the food wasn't that good. The environment seemed kind of sterile, not as warm as other facilities I've visited. There was a smell to it and the rooms were dark like dungeons. My mom didn't think much of it either. I didn't get the feeling that it was a homey atmosphere.

My Mother and Father became residents in June of 2005 when it was Arbor View and was bought out by Merrill Gardens. My Mother was placed in the Garden House unit which specializes in dementia, alzheimers and other issues that could not be handled by assisted living. My father went to the assisted living facility. My Mother and Father were treated respectfully and I had no worries that they were not taken care of at all. My Mother passed at the facility in 2009 and my Father is now in the same unit that my Mother was in. He loves the caregiviers and the people there and they treat him like he is their own father. The staff caregivers are wonderful and I love visiting with them when I go there. I recommend Merrill Gardens in Santa Maria wholeheartedly.

Everyone there was very friendly there and welcoming,very warm,they were very helpful,i enjoyed the tour very much.they assisted me to my full expectations,i've also heard from other people that have obtained assisted living from that place and they all say good things so i decided to go on a tour there.

The rooms at Merrill Gardens weren’t as big as the ones where I’m living now. The staff was very helpful; they explained everything and were very courteous.

It is a gated community, which is nice. It says Merrill Gardens. It doesn’t say, like, assisted living or retirement community. It’s like you’re driving through a gated neighborhood. They have three-story buildings when you first drive in. One of them is independent; one is assisted living. To the left of that, they have three streets that have cottages that are independent living. There are 40 of those cottages on three streets. There are four of them connected. You have your own garage, but you take your trash out just like you do in your normal home. Your mailbox is right down the street from your home, just like in a normal place. There’s a central green area in the middle of the cottages, with community gardening if you wanted. They have patios in the front door, off of the master’s bedroom, and a huge patio off the dining-room area in the kitchen, which has very nice landscaping, so you can putter in the front yard or in the back yard if you wanted to. They do, however, take care of the landscaping they put in. The units are two bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, huge kitchen with an island and an eating area. It’s very well-laid-out and with nice square footage. They’re almost 1,300 square feet, like 1,280. The garage is very nice-sized -- a car and a half garage. If you’re still into having a work bench, a car or a golf cart, you had space for all of that. But in addition, they also have apartments, which have full kitchens. They have a lot of activities going on. They have all kinds of clubs for whatever you happen to be into. If you don’t want to drive, they have shuttles that go to Costco, the grocery store, and the malls. They have outings to the casinos and concerts too. The assisted living has their own three-story building. They have very nice apartments. We only looked at the two bedrooms because that’s what we were interested in. They have lots of square footage, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and nice balconies. Their own buildings are three-story, nicely decorated with good colors. It was very nice. In assisted living, they have more kitchenettes versus the kitchen. The nice thing about Merrill Garden is when they built their apartments (the three-story buildings) one echnically is independent and the other one is assisted, but they are both licensed for assisted living, which is nice. If you are living in the so-called independent apartment and you need assistance, you can still get it in that apartment without moving, which is nice. Their assisted living is not a cookie-cutter program. Whatever you need assistance in is the assistance you will get. All the activities are for everybody. Even if you live in the assisted living, you’re not sequestered to the assisted-living dining room. It's the same thing in the independent living -- you’re not sequestered to that dining room. You can eat whatever venue you want; you can attend whatever activities you want. It doesn’t matter what assistance level you need. You can do everything you want to do. The caregivers looked like very caring people. We ate in the dining room that day; the dining room staff was fabulous. The food was really good. We also toured the memory-care facility, which is three buildings. They call them houses. It’s inside the gated area inside the gated area, so they’re double-gated. They house 14 people in each one of these houses. They each have their own dining room and everything. The rooms were very nice. They’re 150 square feet, nice-sized rooms and bathroom. It didn’t feel like you’re in any kind of a hospital or nursing home. It was very homey, nicely carpeted, walls are wall-papered, nice oak railing going down the hallway, and artwork from residents and artists alike on the walls. Each of the buildings is identical to each other. If they had to move somebody from building 1 to building 3, they wouldn’t get agitated because the buildings look identical to the one they just came from. They wouldn’t even know that they transferred from a different building. I think the biggest difference between Merrill Gardens and some of the other ones is that Merrill Gardens is built as a senior continuing-care community, where some of them that we looked at took over a hotel or a student housing. It was actually built for older people. The bathrooms are the correct size, rooms are nice-sized, and doorways are big enough for wheelchairs and walkers. They seemed to saw almost everything.

Our friend has been in Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria since the 25th of June. They have several buildings, and she is in 1350. I have nothing but good comments about the staff and the facility. The staff is excellent, the facility is very nice, the food is very good, and the people are very caring. The room that my friend has is very comfortable and larger than most that we checked in the area, and the price is a good value. She has a one-bedroom apartment, and it has a complete kitchen with a regular stove and a refrigerator; however, she doesn't plan to cook. All meals are included. and they can eat anytime they want from 7:00 to 7:00. It's the best of all worlds. She has a 700 square foot apartment. and it has one bedroom and one bath. The dining room is lovely. They have all sorts of activities. They have outings where they take them on little bus tours for the day with boxed lunches. They take them to plays, their medical appointments if they need to be taken, and to shopping places. They have a happy hour on Friday night and barbecues on the 4th of July or Memorial Day -- they seem to celebrate every holiday.

I visited Merrill Gardens, and it was excellent; there was excellent care, good meals, good exercises, and entertainment. The staff is very nice, and my friend is living in a 2-bedroom apartment. It’s not large, but it’s adequate and he has a nice balcony.

Merrill Gardens looks pretty nice. It's clean and modern-looking. The have enough common areas, exercise areas, dining, library and social areas. Of all the places I've seen it seems one of the nicest and I would recommend them.