After just a short walk north from Capitol Quarter in SE, you’ll arrive at a long-standing DC institution: the Eastern Market. A staple weekend destination since its creation in 1871, the Eastern Market is the oldest continuously run open farmers’ market in DC and attracts a wide variety of artists, craftsmen, and food venders to its Capitol Hill location.

Did you know that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan limit is changing? The current standard mortgage limit for a single family home in the high cost DC area is $729,750. This limit, however, will soon be decreasing for loans with a note dated after September 30, 2011.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about using our Belkin Energy-Use Monitor to test the difference in energy savings between CFL bulbs and incandescent bulbs and we were able to see firsthand how much better CFL bulbs were for your energy bill. The current product of our energy-use interest? Laptops. Many of us plug our laptops in to charge and leave them plugged in for hours after their battery is full. We're curious to find out what the energy-use implications of this behavior is and whether we should pay more attention to unplugging our computer chargers when they are not actively in use.

To many people, the idea of taking on a do-it-yourself (or DIY) design project is extremely daunting given the amount of time and energy that is often involved. If you watch any HGTV or TLC, you’ve seen the nightmares that are often associated with major DIY projects: missed deadlines, extended budgets, and extreme hassle. As a result, the DIY acronym changes from "do-it-yourself" to a "don't-involve-yourself" type of attitude when it comes to designing one's home. But DIY projects are not always something to steer away from – you just have to choose projects that fit in best with your lifestyle. Deciding to redo your entire kitchen on your own when you work full time might be a little ambitious, but including small DIY projects in your home can increase your love of a room because you have complete control over the outcome and aren't limited by what you can find at your local design stores.

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