Big gap in the action today, but we’re back. We were running around checking out Dror’s new line for Target and Jerry Helling’s new discovery for Bernhardt Design (details coming imminently!) but we’re back, and deep in the Greatest Section of All Time. About as deep, actually, as the lead’s six profilees are in debt. Debt, friends, which led them to only having $300 to dedicate to home improvements. Why even make those home improvements in the first place? Because, clearly, the combination of not having a job and then trying to find a job while hating the place that you wake up in and then stay in all day, hoping that something might change about that pile of clothes if only you click refresh one more time isn’t fun. Trust us, we’ve tried it. And we might try a few of the possibilities discovered by Edifave Julie Scelfo in the course of her investigation of a Staten Island house, a downtown Brooklyn one-bedroom, a Murray Hill share, a Billyburg one-bedroom, and a West Village studio. What’s somewhat surprising is just how visually busy all the upgraded interiors are, which is just another reminder that as easy as it is to cover up less-than-fantastic bones, there’s a reason rich people live in houses that have three pieces of furniture. It just, when done right, looks better. Still, kudos for acknowledging that fact that we’re all broke, and showing that it doesn’t mean we have to live miserably. Having just purchased our first piece of art and contemplating the introduction of paint to our craptastically yellow walls, we’re inspired.

Elsewhere, Anne Raver plants peas. With her boyfriend, Rock. Who calls her Bugsy. This is fantastic. Beloved Canadian Tim McKeough is nowhere in shopping sight as Zahra Sethna looks for clocks with the boys behind the billable hour-tracking Harvest (no more rounding up to the nearest hundred, sigh); The Fix introduces home-repair novices to “the shutoff” valve; Scelfo moves right along through another Green Home interview; and, of course, Stuff-You-Can-Buy. Cheaper.

And now, as per always, a few hours late-ish and definitely $300 short, our scores:

Eva: 5.5, 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 5.1
Ian: 5.2, 3.8, 4.9, 3.9, 5.3

Sort of a quite-good-to-good-level week this week. Solid on the real-life assist courtesy Ms. Scelfo and a remarkable show of Raver-ian personality. It’s almost like the faces behind the section are coming out to play. Making jokes. Doing stuff. Being funny. Keep it up. Oh wait! We just got it! It’s all about taking care of yourself! We peons can turn off our own leaky water valves, make our homes a little greener, and tell time! All it takes is a reasonable drive(way) and a lot of gumption.

The $300 Makeover (At Least That Was the Goal) [New York Times]
The Joy of Planting: Earth, Sun and Peas [New York Times]
Got a Minute? [New York Times]
Some Basics for Home-Repair Novices [New York Times]
Five Beginners’ Steps to a Greener Home [New York Times]