The Hearth at Gardenside was a very bright, nice, and friendly community. The rooms were smaller than I anticipated, but they were comfortable looking. We saw a room with a pool table, the kitchen, the dining area, the exercise section, and the game room. The person that gave us a tour had only been there a month though. She wasn't too aware of some of the questions we asked.

I took a tour of The Hearth at Gardenside for my parents. It was very clean, and the woman that toured me was very helpful (even though I didn't find what I thought my parents would want). She had suggestions of other directions that I could take, other facilities I could look into, and just overall advice on how to navigate and try to find care for my parents. I never felt like I was getting a sales talk. She was just very open and helpful, so there was no pressure. I got just a lot of good information from her. They didn't have what I thought my parents would want, which would be more like little cottages or something, and that wasn't what they had. This place wasn't appropriate, for what I thought my parents needed. It was a very comfortable and warm place. They had a nice menu from what I saw. They actually sent me home with a little gift bag with pasta and their Chef's homemade tomato sauce, which was wonderful. It looks like a lot of nice choices for vegetarian, gluten free, etc. They have a nice open foyer and they had it set up so that there was a scan for temperature; it was very efficient. They were very warm people. The place was very bright, very airy, and nice. They have a library and a reading room. They had a room for families. If they wanted to do something privately as a resident, you could basically have a party. Everything was so well done, and well planned. The dining room was very nice. It was very nice out on the patio. It was a beautiful place. They seem to be well coordinated with outside therapies that the residents might have. In other words, if somebody had to go out for a physical therapy or speech therapy appointment, they had everything coordinated very well. It could happen fairly easily. What was nice is you really never have to leave the facility as your needs increase as a resident (even to a hospice situation). I think that was really nice because you're not necessarily having to be pulled out to go to another place. The continuity seemed to be really important.

The Hearth at Gardenside was the most impressive place in terms of appearances. I saw two different apartments, hallways, and a dining hall. They had a restriction, and people could not leave the premises. The staff was very good. The appearance on the outside was certainly rather spectacular. The parking lot seemed good enough.