The Best Independent Living Communities in Chittenden County, VT

"I toured The Residence at Quarry Hill for my mom. It's very nice and very well kept up. The people are very friendly. It's a very nice facility. The rooms are nice, but I think they're small. They're also well-maintained. The staff are very knowledgeable and very friendly, and they get back to me very quickly with the questions that I had. They have a lot of activities. They have flower arranging, a bridge group, and places where people can assemble puzzles. They also have a kitchen for cooking and a place for people to play board games. They have a whole exercise class and a wellness area where the physical therapists can come. They have a movie theater area, too. They had a lot going on. The dining areas were also very nice."

"Harbor Village Senior Communities is too much money for me right now. However, I like that place. They try to get to know what your needs are before you take a tour. After you go through the process of assessing what kind of needs you have, then they give you a tour of the facility itself, which has two parts. One part is for assisted living and the other part is for just senior living. We went to the senior living, and the apartments are very spacious. They have a nice little deck. They're way bigger than I expected. They told me that I could get one meal a day, I could get help going places, and I could join in activities like puzzles and painting and other ways to meet people. They have a community room for people to gather. They have a room for exercise, so you don't even have to go anywhere. The woman who gave the tour was incredibly nice. I really can't say enough good things about her. She was so nice. I wanted to be her friend, that's how nice she was. She just understood what I needed because she had some challenges herself, and I appreciated the way she approached it with me. You can get apartments that are furnished if you want. They have refrigerators and stoves. They have a small kitchen in one area and a large, spacious living room area. They have doors that go into the walls so that when you open them, they're not leaning out into the room. They go into the wall, and it makes the room even more spacious. There are lots of lights and gardening places. There are so many things there. It was quite a nice facility. I was surprised. They showed us the dining area. They got medium-sized tables set up very nicely like a restaurant would have. There was no one eating when I was there. But you are allowed to have one meal a day, so you can pick whatever meal you want. They have menus around, and they keep you informed on what they do have going on every day in a mailbox. The staff knew everyone's name that we passed. It was like this woman knows all these people pretty well, and they all seem very happy to see her. And I didn't see anybody looking sad, so that was a good thing. The building was super clean."

"My grandmother lives at The Haven at Shelburne Bay which is a wing dedicated to those suffering from severe memory loss. The nurses there have all been wonderful to her and to myself and my family as my grandmother's mental state has slowly deteriorated.The facilities at Shelburne Bay are well taken care of. There is a small grounds area with a pond and a pleasant walking path. The dining area is fairly fancy and is complete with a bar for the frequent social events held by the community.Over the five or so years I have been visiting Shelburne Bay the staff turnover seems to be fairly frequent at the lower levels but much of the management is intact as far as I can tell. Also, they don't seem to have any trouble finding capable and friendly nurses as replacements.I would certainly recommend Shelburne Bay to anyone, and especially the memory loss facilities at The Haven. "

"My parents moved to Homestead Senior Living. I try to stop by there unexpectedly and uninvited any time of the day, sometimes in the evening, and I have never met a staff member that I feel like they wish they were working somewhere else. Every single person cares. They take their jobs seriously and they are very obviously focused on the residents' welfare. The food has been great. There's a decent variety. They're limited by what is decided from the main headquarters, but it's good food. It's fresh, nutritious, and always plentiful. It's not gourmet, but it's good home cooked food. They have many indoor spaces with a few pianos and lots of very comfortable seating areas. In the outdoor spaces, they've got a beautiful porch on the front where you can see the whole lake from it. So, there are beautiful views of sunset. They have lots of activities scheduled. They're still kind of working on some new activities, but they have exercise every morning at 10:30 if you want to participate, and my parents have been participating. Then they have little parties and gatherings, things to pull the community together. It's not inexpensive, but you get what you pay for."

"Pines Senior Living Community is in a great location that I prefer to be in. The facility is very clean. There are fewer community activities, but I think I could make it work. They have some exercise facilities that are very helpful to my mental health to exercise. They have yoga in the morning."

"I did a tour of Williston Place. It's the newest installation, and there were a couple of good things. It was built over a parking garage, so you'd have parking out on the snow. Although, they do snow cleaning in most cases. It's almost like two or three years old, it couldn't have been there for 20 years. Every one of the rooms has a storage area, which is kind of nice. They have dinner every night, and they have a calendar of events. It's one meal a day. They have sort of an outdoor patio, adjacent to kind of a bar there. They're the newest and they have the covered parking."