When a house that we would call "half-timbered" or "fachwerke," as the Germans say reaches a certain age, say about 100-120 years, the Germans don't do as we would do (in fact we would do it much, much earlier) and just bulldoze the thing down to make room for a newer, "improved" version. Instead, they painstakingly resurrect the house in a process that can take a month or so, but can prolong the life of the house another 100 years. Then the next generation has to worry about the next renovation.

Renovating a fachwerke house works like this: The owners move out, taking all of their belongings with them. Most people live with relatives or in an apartment while their house is being rebuilt. Once all the fixtures and wiring has been carefully removed, the walls come tumbling down. Jackhammers punch out all the brick, plaster, straw, sticks and other "filling" that makes this house solid. The only parts of the house that are left once they're done with this phase of the rebuilding process are the original heavy timbers and the roof.

The house is left a skeleton, a bare ghost of what it was before. Where straw, mud or even sticks might have held this house together for the last 120 years, now workers come with bricks, concrete and plaster, refilling all the spaces in-between the timbers until the house is whole again. The floors are reinstalled, doors re-hung, windows placed back into the gaping holes in the walls. Flower boxes are put back onto the window sills, the lights come back on and this house is once again a home. Changed, but not altered. Renewed but not moved. Standing crooked or straight, this house is strong again and will last beyond the time when the owners have passed into the next world for their own hopeful rebirth.

It's a process that inspires one to believe that these little villages and towns will look the same in the year 2099 as they did in the year 1999, or the year 1899, or the year 1799.