Kendal at Ithaca

Ruth

I liked the whole complex of Kendal At Ithaca and the idea that you can go there at different stages, starting with living independently, and then assisted living. If you have to go to the hospital, that is there too. They have doctors looking after you, so you don't need to go anywhere else. They showed me various rooms and sizes, activities rooms, and a pool. The staff was very outgoing, knowledgeable, friendly, and professional. The food is very good. I've tasted it a few times, and I was not disappointed. I know several people who live there already, and they said the food was acceptable. They have a dishwasher and a laundry room with a washer and dryer. They have hallways with benches and little extra rooms. They have musical activities, handcrafts, movies, and outdoor sporting facilities for various sports like tennis.

Susan78059950

I was amazed how caring and available the staff was at Kendal at Ithaca. They had open door policies on the staff offices. Anybody could walk in there at any time and interact with anyone they wanted to. I thought it was amazing that they were accessible. I was sure they wouldn't want everyone clamoring in there, and I thought, because they made themselves so accessible, it wasn't necessary to schedule time to be with people because they were always amongst the people. The whole facility was absolutely lovely. It was clean. The people were all engaged. They had private rooms. It was a continuum of care facility, so they had independent living, assisted living, and a home nurse feature. The dining service was phenomenal. You could eat buffet style, or you could sit in the dining room. The menus were many, so you had your choices of what you wanted to eat from a pretty extensive menu, plus they had vegetarian food, which was very important to me, and they had that for every meal. I looked at their meal plan for two weeks, and it looked like it varied every day. Out of all the places that I had seen on every website, Kendral surpassed everything. They had activities. They had committees for the people to join. They even had a pool and a little putting green. It was just an amazing facility that they had set up for the people. They had a lot of people who were over a 100 years old, so I thought that spoke to how they took care of their people.

sarenseeley

At Kendal, residents were active and engaged socially despite any physical limitations. They had a number of different types of activities and outings, and often brought in outside speakers and musicians to lecture or give a concert. My grandparents easily made friends with other residents. I also appreciated that they had physical therapy and fitness activities and facilities such as a pool onsite - it seemed like there was a good emphasis on maintaining both mental and physical ability. Kendal has a number of different levels of living, from independent cottages to almost full care rooms, so that helped the transition when my grandfather became gradually more unable to care for himself. The rooms and cottages are spacious and windows are plentiful, from what I recall - it's not gloomy or ill-maintained, and doesn't seem hospital- or hospice-like. My grandfather, when he was in his cottage, was able to put in a small patio and plant a garden. He was a horticulturalist, so this meant a lot to him. Most of the residents are former professionals from the two universities in the town - a rather homogenous demographic: white, middle-class, well-educated, academic.

Nelson1

We are retiring from a ranch life in Colorado and we toured this community. This place is terrific and very nice. The whole place is just too way expensive for us. It costs about $6000 a month to live there. Also in Ithaca, they have a lot of expensive living there because their taxes are very high. Also one drawback we had with The Kendall is that they started a while ago and their population has aged and we are with all the others living longer.