Many of us opened our windows this week to welcome in the first warm spring-like day since the start of winter. It is still February and talk of warm weather will surely be proven premature, but for me this respite from the cold already has me thinking about my home’s transition from winter to spring. Is it too early to uncover the outdoor furniture and set it up on the patio? Am I going to plant a garden this year? I can’t wait to put my winter coat away for the summer already!

But more than each of those acts is a smaller gesture with much greater significance, the act of opening up one’s windows. Whether it’s turning the crank of your casement window or pushing up the frame on your double hungs, the feeling of the outside air dancing around you as it makes its way further into your home is one of rebirth. We take deep breaths of it followed by peaceful, smiling exhales, imagining the possibilities of an imminent spring.

To be sure, I’ve opened windows during the winter as well and by that I mean in my career as a realtor. I’ve had to climb through windows more than once to make sure a showing happened. My seller promised me the key would be in the mailbox, but the mailman must have gotten to it first. My customer from Riverdale packed his whole family in the car and came across the bridge. I wasn’t going to let a locked door stop me from completing the scheduled showing.

There was also the time on a below freezing day in January when I arrived a few minutes early to turn on the lights for a showing only to find the seller’s high school aged son reheating leftover fish from the prior night’s family restaurant dinner. The house stank and I needed to make a quick decision. Do I show a cold house or a fishy/smelly house? I ran to the sliding doors in the kitchen and opened them, then ran to the window over the sink and cranked away until the cross breeze was in full force. The blast of cold air sent the poor high schooler running from the kitchen, but the objective had been achieved and all that remained of the smelly/fishiness was a faint (cold) odor that would hopefully go unnoticed.

Back to this week. I found myself thinking: It’s too early to bring out the plants and set up the lounge chairs, but I should enjoy a “standing” cup of coffee outside on my patio. The air was warm but there was no mistaking the bleakness of the view; it sure looked like winter. There were sounds of birds chirping, the kind of chirping uncharacteristic of winter. They must have been excited by the weather too. They were thinking about what comes next … I think they were starting to look for a new home.

Nechama Polak is broker of record and owner of V and N Group LLC located at 1401 Palisade Ave, Teaneck. [email protected] 201 826 8809