originally published at timesunion.com
by Bethany Bump on Sept. 20, 2019
In the late '90s, Frank Laskey was approached by a couple who wanted to build a new home.
Richard and Jane Leifer had been living in a Victorian-era home in Saratoga Springs that was drafty and that caused Jane's chemical sensitivities to flare up. Air was getting into the cracks and openings of the old house, carrying chemicals and toxins it found along the way. As a result, it was hard for Jane to breathe.
The Leifers wanted their new home to address these issues while having as little impact as possible on the environment. That's how they found Laskey — a local homebuilder whose business, Capital Construction, was getting into the green building scene.
"They were unusual clients in that we worked very much as a team to build their house," Laskey recalled.