The Capital District Triathlon Club meets at the lake weekly for distance swim training. Jim Gazzale is the president, and for him, taking good care of your body is a lifetime journey.

So, he’s made it his life’s work, opening SENS Fitness, coined the wine and weight loss program.

“We strive to empower people to make the healthiest food choices for them with no restrictions,” said Gazzale.

Gazzale’s home garage-turned-fitness space is used to give clients a one-on-one experience. But soon, a workout there won’t be an option.

“We need to move temporarily into an apartment setting and not have access to the garage here for a little bit longer than we originally anticipated,” said Gazzale.

His home was sold after just five days on the market. In March 2020, COVID-19 caused home sales to come to a halt. Things bounced back a few months later though, and still the demand is high.

Gazzale and his family are building a new home, and that process is being impacted by the pandemic, too. The housing construction industry is dealing with major lumber shortages.

“Going into it, we’re all excited. The builder scheduled a meeting to sit down and talk with us, so we are looking forward to that. We’re going to pick this, we’re going to pick that...a lot of excitement,” he said. “And the first thing he says is that our cost just went up by $25,000 and the time to build got extended by an additional month or two.”

Real estate brokerage firm Redfin predicts there will be more new homes built in 2021 than in any year since 2006. The demand, and projected delays, means people like Jim will have to get creative to keep their at home businesses running smoothly.

“What we’re really trying to do is educate them, help them build the skills so that several months, a year, a year plus from now, they’ve got the confidence and ability to do this on their own,” Gazzale said. “So this will just be jumping into the deep end and accelerate that process without having access here.”