The morning Lauren Liess moved into her Herndon home, she took a sledgehammer to the basement to demolish the drop ceiling. Later that day, she and her husband ripped apart the kitchen.
With a second child on the way, a new interior design business to promote and her husband, Dave, a high-school English teacher, home on summer break, Liess didn’t want to waste time.
And she had quite a project: The 1970s bi-level house was an architectural eyesore with an equally bleak interior. “It was the most hideous house in the neighborhood,” Liess says.
But with Dave’s DIY assistance, and $35,000 from savings and no-interest credit cards, Liess took a house that had been for sale for four years and, in six months, turned it into a jewel.
“It was scary,” says Liess, 29. “But it worked.”
Two months later, in December 2009, a Better Homes and Garden editor saw the house’s transformation on Liess’s blog, purestylehome.blogspot.com. Then it all started happening: A story about their home appeared in the December 2010 issue of the magazine. Soon after, Liess was selected to participate in the D.C. Design House, where she debuted her own line of fabrics. She currently has a 10-piece furniture collection in the works.
Her career trajectory is even more impressive given that just three years ago she was only doing design part time and living in her mother’s basement.
In 2008, the young couple, with their 1-year-old son, moved into Lauren’s mother’s McLean home to build their savings. They had lost money on their Reston townhouse when the real-estate market collapsed. At her mom’s house, Liess began design work full time, started her blog, which now gets approximately 120,000 hits a month, and found their current home.
She spotted the five-bedroom home online, but it wasn’t much to look at.
The exterior was devoid of personality; it was painted a pallid “peachy-tan” and lacked landscaping. Inside, the walls were painted white, the floors covered in linoleum and white wall-to-wall carpeting. The bathrooms still had the original avocado-green fixtures, and the kitchen had recently been “upgraded” with vinyl flooring, builder-grade maple cabinets and Formica countertops. Some of the appliances were almond-colored.
One of the biggest drawbacks was the architecture. In bi-level homes, the main entrance opens to a landing with stairs leading to the upper and lower levels.
“It’s an inconvenient type of house because there are lots of stairs,” says Anita Lasansky, manager at the Long & Foster Reston North Hills/Herndon office. “You have to make a decision every time you enter the house.” A bi-level is usually the last choice on a client’s list, she said, “but they are usually less expensive because they are not as popular.”
The couple’s own real estate agent tried to dissuade them from buying the house, says Liess. “My in-laws pleaded with us.”
But Liess was in love. So much so that when the couple’s purchase offer was rejected, she drafted a letter to the homeowners asking them to reconsider. “I promised to take care of it and love it,” she says.
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