Vi at Highlands Ranch

I visited Vi at Highlands Ranch, and I've been impressed. They are at the upper end cost-wise, but I like the facility, and I like the completeness of care. One thing I was impressed with is that the monthly amount could vary from year to year, but it does not change when you go from independent living to, let's say, assisted living. The place looked like it would fit what I wanted, and the staff were very competent.

I am blessed to have lived at Vi of Highlands Ranch for almost 8 years. When I was a widow and living alone for 7 years after my husband died, I decided that I wanted to pick my own destiny. I visited all of the Sr. Living Communities in my area and it wasn't even close that Vi of Highlands Ranch would be my "last stop". It's not only a lovely environment with great staff, it is my home. Almost like living in a resort or on a cruise ship. I have a 1 bedroom unit with a den that is more than big enough for me. My balcony has a lovely view of the mountains and I have sun all day, so my unit is always bright and cheery. The past year has been difficult with Covid restrictions, but almost all of us have gotten our first vaccinations and the second ones are scheduled for 3 weeks from now. Vi arranged for that for us. We have a lot of amenities to take advantage of. A great fitness center, beautiful indoor pool with hot tub, beauty shop on site, lots of fitness classes both on our private channel and in the Centennial Room, for the Catholics we have a Monsignor that is a resident who does 3 weekly morning masses and a mass on Sunday mornings. So much more. As I said anyone that lives here is truly blessed.

Vi at Highlands Ranch is very expensive. It's not that I'm unhappy here, but I've been living here for a long time and it's not as good as it was when I moved in. The service is not as good. The food is not as good. The population of the people who live here are not at all like me anymore. The people who live here are very white, very rich, mostly Christian, and it doesn't suit me anymore. However, I can't afford to move. It's very expensive to move out of here and I am not rich at all. I am still in independent living. The care center where people go if they can no longer live independently, they didn't plan it very well, and they didn't build the care center large enough to take all of the aging population in the independent living building. One of the reasons my husband and I originally chose this place was because of the continuing care, the friends we made, and our relatives could come and see us whenever they wanted. The continuing care was very important to us so we wouldn't have to move. My husband was in the care center and they took wonderful care of him. However, there's no room in the care center for long-term care. When we moved here, it was before it was built, and it was a very large buy-in. It's much lower now, but much higher than the other places I investigated. The stipulations for getting your money out if you want to move out is very difficult. Not that they won't give it to you, but you have to give them three months' notice. If you move out before three months, you still are committed to paying the three months maintenance. After you move out, they are not required to refund any money that they still have of yours 90% of what it was for another three months. In other words, if I decided to move out next week, then I would have to pay six months maintenance here plus whatever the buy-in and the rent in another place where I would be living would cost and I don't have that kind of money. It's a very nice place. I have a one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, a very large living room, a large bedroom, a huge closet, and a bathroom with a big shower. I was in a beautiful two-bedroom apartment when my husband was alive. Each apartment has a small balcony, and depending on where you chose your apartment, some of them have very nice views and some of them don't, some of them overlook parking lots. I have a gorgeous view of the mountain. Some of the staff members are wonderful. The facility is great, very nice, and manageable, but I don't think they planned it when they built it as well as they could. Everything is a little too small, not the individual apartments, but the gathering rooms, the library, and the game room. There are no activities now because of the pandemic. It's very expensive. Before the pandemic, I understand that the pricing was what it should've been, but since everything is so limited now, they haven't cut the prices even though they cut the services. The other places that I investigated were all less expensive, but they didn't offer as much.

We visited Vi at Highlands Ranch. I would call them the Ritz-Carlton version of senior care. They had everything, like a small golf course, parks, indoor and outdoor pools, room service, restaurant service and so on. The place was very well-done with lots of activities. It's not cheap, but it's great.