About a year after the onset of the pandemic, Kathy Lange-Novak and her husband, Frank Novak, decided it was time to update their Fitchburg home. After 26 years, the floors, countertops and appliances were showing their age, and the couple thought they needed to upgrade before putting the house on the market. “This is the first time we’ve remodeled anything,” Kathy said. “It needed an overhaul.” Like so many Americans, the recently retired couple had spent most of the past year at home as COVID-19 health restrictions limited their social activities. “It’s one thing when you go, ‘We could really use new carpeting, but we can go to the movies,’”…