renovate

I wouldn’t have guessed that I would be renovating residential houses at this point in my life, but I love it. We do really high quality work, everyone loves what they do and pride’s themselves in their work, and the clients always love the homes that we renovate. I’m learning a lot both in the office working on the design, architecture, and business end and in the field learning how things are done, mingling with people, and getting a good workout.

There is, however, a surly group of locals who are adamantly against what we do. They hate the designs, the materials, etc., and make it a personal issue. I think they have too much time on their hands and just despise change in general. If they could see the state the houses are in before (nearly falling over, vegetation growing over the house and sometimes inside it, poor previous additions sometimes without even wall studs!, etc.) then I think there would be less complaints about us restoring them.

Anyways, I love the idea of restoring things and decided to look up the word. Words fascinate me and this one is just one of the many. Here’s what Webster says:

Main Entry: ren·o·vate

Etymology: Latin renovatus, past participle of renovare, from re- + novare to make new, from novus new

1 : to restore to a former better state (as by cleaning, repairing, or rebuilding)

2 : to restore to life, vigor, or activity : revive <the church was renovated by a new ecumenical spirit>

I love that – “to restore life, vigor, or activity”. And I love that the sample sentence includes the church because renovating is such a Christian idea. As Christians, each of us has been renovated and made new. We were fallen sinners who were dead, but Christ came and renovated us – He restored life, vigor, and activity to us. This is what it means when Christ says that he came so that we may have life and have it to the fullest.

Things that are renovated have a history to them. There’s the first stage or design; then a metamorphosis changing it into something similar but different. Traditional that’s reinvented. I like the purity of things that have undergone the metamorphosis but don’t find them as interesting; and I’d argue that they don’t have as much history. Take a building, for example; or a city. If a city never renovated or changed anything then it would just be old. But the more it changes and is renovated and developed, the more it shows a snap-shot of that specific time throughout the complete timeline of the building. You can’t see how old something is unless you have something new to compare it to.