If you want an excuse to visit New York this weekend, the Architectural Digest Home Design Show offers a good one. In addition to exhibits from hundreds of high-end design companies, there are complimentary one-on-one consultations with design professionals, book-signings, and cooking demonstrations by kitchen designers and celebrity chefs. A collection of portfolios from interior designers, architects, and landscape designers is a good resource for design help.

Tickets are $25, $20 in advance, and include a six month subscription to Architectural Digest.

March 9-11 | Pier 94 | New York City

Furniture and appliances always look smaller in a store showroom than at home. Several times I have bought something but had to return it once I saw how bulky it looked in my studio apartment.

If only I had known about MyDesignIn, an online home-design social network where members create blueprints of room layouts and drag-and-drop in photos of furniture and appliances. You select the photos from retailer sites like Pottery Barn with a bookmarking tool.

You can ask fellow members for feedback and suggestions and even let them access your layouts. So if your living room furniture doesn’t look right, invite people to collaborate.

Although membership is required to use the site, registration is free.

Here’s this week’s roundup of the ten top sales in the region, as reported by American City Business Leads.

$2,512,327—10621 Rivers Bend Lane, Potomac
$2,400,000—1825 23rd Street, NW, Kalorama
$2,300,000—2424 18th Street, NW, Unit 2, Kalorama
$2,259,915—5210 Goddard Road, Bethesda
$2,111,916—5928 Kirby Road, Bethesda
$2,050,000—2413 49th Street, NW, Palisades
$2,049,900—8586 Brickyard Road, Potomac
$1,975,000—3607 N. Abingdon Street, Arlington
$1,898,600—2991 N. 15th Street, No. 1004, Arlington
$1,863,281—1250 31st Street, NW, Georgetown

More fun numbers:
• 7: Number of sales that broke $2 million
• 72: Number of sales that broke $1 million
• 148: Number of sales that broke $800,000

Light, basic paint colors can make a basement room seem brighter and larger.

By: Lauren Masterson 

In Washington's landscape of million-dollar condos and townhouses, where do all the underpaid—or unpaid—recent college grads and interns live? The basement. Often, the best deals are below street level. An army of young professionals live in English basements across the city, particularly in older neighborhoods like Georgetown, Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, and Glover Park. Here’s how to make the most of basement living.

• Let there be light. Basements rarely get enough sunlight. The solution is surprisingly simple: “Light, light, light,” says Maia Heard of Ikea. She recommends combining overhead lights with table and floor lamps. Cristina Montes, a designer at Crate & Barrel, likes GE Reveal bulbs for their natural-looking light. She also suggests recessed lighting “because you can spread it out—it helps the room feel bigger.”

• Bugs be gone. Uninvited guests are one of the worst parts of living underground. The Ultimate AT Pest Repeller ($48.95) uses ultrasonic noise to annoy the pests away. For a smaller apartment, Black and Decker makes a less expensive version for $12.

• Dry it out. Basements can be dank. A dehumidifier dries the air and prevents mildew and musty smells. Consumersearch.com recommends the Soleus Air 40-Pint Dehumidifier ($176), which owners say is quiet, lightweight, and portable.

•Choose colors carefully. Light, basic colors make a room feel brighter and larger. “Keep it simple,” Montes says. “You can bring in your personality through your furniture and accents.”

The people who bought John Edwards's Georgetown house used an LLC to hide it.

When former North Carolina senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards sold his Georgetown home for $5.2 million in December, the buyers garnered as much attention as the sellers.

At the time of the purchase, documents identified the buyer only as P Street LLC. The Washington Post later reported that Paul and Terry Klaassen, who founded the assisted-living giant Sunrise Senior Living, created that limited-liability company to buy the house.

According to DC settlement attorney David Deckelbaum, creating limited-liability companies and trusts is an increasingly popular way to maintain anonymity in a real-estate deal. LLCs and trusts also carry estate-planning benefits. For example, if a home is owned by a trust, it can be passed on to children or grandchildren at the time of death without incurring some taxes.

Many prominent Washingtonians have used LLCs and trusts. According to tax records, BET cofounder Sheila Johnson’s $9.7-million, 200-acre estate in Middleburg is owned by Salamander Group LLC. When the Carlyle Group’s William Conway sold Merrywood, the 47-acre estate that was the childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in November 2005, public records said the buyer was Merrywood LLC. In reality, AOL cofounder Steve Case was behind the $24.5-million deal. Former lobbyist and felon Jack Abramoff also created a limited-liability company—DL/JA LLC—to purchase his Silver Spring home, which is worth more than $1.7 million.

DC’s property-assessment database says that the $4.4-million Spring Valley home of NBC’s Tim Russert was purchased by “Robert E. Madden Trustee.” Madden, a District lawyer who specializes in estate planning, has written a book called Tax Planning for Highly Compensated Individuals.

Another common practice is for a home to appear only in the name of one spouse. Talk show host Tucker Carlson’s $3.8-million manse in DC’s Kent comes up under his wife’s name, Susan Carlson. The Georgetown house of Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, which is assessed at $2.6 million, appears under the name of his wife, Elsa Walsh, also a writer and reporter. And Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy’s $5.7-million Kalorama house is credited to his wife, Victoria. Although a search for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi comes up fruitless, her husband, businessman Paul Pelosi, owns a $1-million-plus condo on Georgetown’s waterfront.

Residents of Fairfax County have an Internet advantage: They can ask that their names be removed from the online database of real-estate tax assessments. Under the field “owner name,” the houses of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas read “name withheld by request.”

If only it was really that simple.

Here's my pick of the week: a hand-painted breakfast bar with two matching bar stools for $100. The bright green and white design would go well in the corner of a kitchen or on a screened porch. More pictures here.

More Cool Stuff: 

• Art deco walnut clock for $120
• Two white, modern sofas for $1,400
• Dining room table with 4 chairs for $450
• Antique mirror for $120
• White wicker chaise lounge for $75
• Wine rack for $30
• 1940s winged-back chair for $50
• Oak coffee table for $40
• Cherry sleigh bed for $390

Thanks, Craigslist!