Her real estate agent advised against it. Her in-laws begged and pleaded. But designer Lauren Liess saw an opportunity in an eyesore of a house in Herndon.
Designer Lauren Liess sits with her son, Christian, 4, in their Herndon home; her husband, Dave, holds Justin, one-and-a-half years old. The Liesses used $35,000 in savings and no-interest credit cards to transform their entire home and Lauren's career as a designer and blogger. "It was scary," says Lauren, "but it worked." Katherine Frey/The Washington Post