Getting Ready for Spring in Sacramento

Getting ready for spring in Sacramento means opening your eyes.

Getting ready for spring in Sacramento means shoving my boots to the back of my closet and checking to make sure the heels on my sandals are in intact — because standing on my tippy toes in my client’s garden beds to shoot photographs of their back yards doesn’t always work, especially after they have watered the lawn. Sometimes those heels sink into the mud without my knowledge. Whereas getting ready for spring in a place like Minneapolis means opening the front door in excitement and then slamming it in disgust because the snow never stops falling.

You might not know this, but March is often the snowiest month in Minneapolis. See, it’s all in perspective for me.

Getting ready for spring in Sacramento pretty much means waking up and perhaps weeding the garden, perhaps not. Although I did pull our patio chairs from the garage. Those poor pieces of outdoor furniture traveled from Minneapolis to Sacramento some 13 years ago when we moved to our home in Land Park. They were in pretty good shape when we got here, a white powder-coat finish offset the navy blue sling chairs. I can’t count the number of times since they have blown off our back deck during a winter storm. Our table did not survive the first storm, the glass top shattered into a million pieces, so we bought cast iron. We replaced the umbrella after a tree fell on the house.

But arranging the chairs this weekend for a dinner party I noticed a seam had given way and was no longer attached to the frame. The white powder-coat finish featured a bunch of dings, chips and streaks of blue paint, no doubt scraped from the deck. The table had developed rust spots. Strings hung from the umbrella. It was time for new patio furniture. I was a bit astonished that my husband did not object, usually his response is something like: well, we can still sit on it, (except for that one chair). Then again, we have been married for many years.

Besides, there are Ingress portals to hack out by Emigh’s Outdoor Living on El Camino and Watt. And I was super excited to discover a Laser Tag place nearby. Let’s go play, let’s go play. But no, for my husband, we had to do normal things like shop for cat food and get home in time to take the clothes out of the dryer. For me, to update my clients about what happened at their Sunday open houses. And call my sister in Minneapolis to hear about how much the snow never stops falling while I describe our new patio furniture. She claims her phone just dropped the call — but probably the only thing worse than opening your front door and slamming it in disgust is to listen to your sister in California ramble on about her shopping adventure for patio furniture.

I love spring in Sacramento. It’s an excellent time to buy or sell a home. If you need a Sacramento REALTOR, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.