News, insight and some thoughts about the Sacramento-area real estate market

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March 14, 2008

At OSH

It is almost closing time at hundreds of big-box suburban hardware stores all over California. At this one in the suburbs of Sacramento, 21 lawnmowers fill the sidewalk out front, parked near a dozen bags of ready-to-use potting soil. These are final quiet moments before a big spring weekend for homeowners who have been cooped up all winter letting their list of jobs pile up.
I am in quick for a half gallon of paint, a pleasant white semi gloss called moonrise, to touch up a few last baseboards at home. The store is filled with patio furniture, tent-like gazebos and seeds to feed bright butterflies and hummingbirds. The Tiki torches are in for the season and so are yellow marigolds and pink verbena.
The cashier expects a mad house on Saturday. It is March, with trees blooming in the streets and back yards, a weekend when homeowners love the smell of lawn fertilizer in the morning.