#155: Can “The Rule Of Age 10” Truly Predict Your Future?

Today we are exploring an expert’s theory that your childhood passions (specifically around 5th grade) could hold the key to what you will enjoy doing most as an adult. It was fascinating to take a look back and see if the idea truly held up for us. We are also confessing to a mistake we made when hiring a pro for a recent house project and sharing what we will do differently from here on out. Plus it turns out that plants are not the powerful air purifiers we were promised, and the nerdiest decorating project you’ve ever heard in your life.

You can also find this episode on your go-to podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.

What is New

• We will have a post this week with more photos of all of our outdoor updates, but for now, here is a sneak peek of our new front path. You can even see a bit of our widened front steps here too.
• And below is a photo from last fall where you can see the old aggregate path & steps a little better (you can also see another sneak peek photo in the shownotes for Episode #150).

• We also referenced our advice/process for hiring contractors, subcontractors, or other professionals, which you can hear in detail in Episode #68.
• You can also hear more advice on working with pros in the following episodes:
  • Plain negotiating tricks in Episode #63
  • Insider pointers from contractors on how to be a better client in Episode #104
  • Why contractors are sometimes hard in pin down in Episode #109

Update On The NASA Plant Study

• So in last week’s episode we talked about how plants assist purify a home’s indoor air, based on a study NASA had done that is allll over the internet.
• Here is where you read the ACTUAL study from 1989 off of NASA’s digital archives (there are a couple of screenshots below – fairly retro, eh?). Also, does anyone else find the term “Squirrel Cage Fan” hilarious?

• As soon as that episode aired, tons of you pointed us to newer articles like this one from Time Magazine that say the NASA findings do not truly hold up outside of “laboratory conditions” (like in your actual home).
• But the good news is that they also point to studies like this one, that say caring for indoor plants has been shown to reduce your stress and anxiety.

The Rule Of Age 10

• Here is where you can read the full Reader’s Digest article about The Rule of Age 10, and here is the book that explores the idea of changing your life or career later in life.
• I’d also be remiss not to link to where you can get a Reader’s Digest subscription (looks like it is $15 for the year, or $8 if you do an auto-renewal plan). Sherry would enjoy to have more of you on the RD bandwagon, I am sure.
• And here we are around age 10, simply living our best lives and posing amazingly for photos.

• Here is Sherry’s childhood room that she referenced, complete with clouds that she painted on her closet doors and light blue trim (which she changed fairly frequently). The seal poster is fairly good, but you will also note her “pet net” hanging in the left corner, and those tinsel “tassels” that she made and taped to the corners of her trim. Let us also acknowledge the airbrushed winking jeans that she picked up with her own money from a boardwalk shop at the Jersey Shore.

• Sherry mentioned that I was early on the “room documenting” bandwagon, which included these crude collages I made by taping together a few 3×5″ photos. Ladies & gentlemen, I called this “a panoramic representation” of my room. The first collage is my side of my first dorm room, and the second one was my apartment for my last two years of college.

• You can see the radiator I mentioned making the shelf for in the collage above, but sadly you cannot see the math-y painted top part because it is covered with stuff (apparently I did not bother to clean a dang thing before taking these pictures).

We are Digging

• Here is the chalk line we used to mark the joists under our new bathroom subfloor panels (marking the joists with the chalk made it faster for us to make sure we were hitting them with our screws). You can see the string is coated in the blue chalk dust and I have got one end of it hooked on to the edge of the plywood. I do not have it pulled taut in this photo, but you can see how it left a pleasant straight faint blue line on the floor when we pulled it straight and snapped it.

• Mine is several years old now, so this is the closest version to my model that I could find. There is also this one for a little less (both are still under $10).

• And if you are fans of Elsie and Emma (or are simply looking for more casual home-related podcasts) certainly check out the A Striking Mess Podcast. You can find it wherever you listen to our podcast.
• Oh, and if you are interested in starting a podcast yourself, we wrote a podcasting e-course for ABM last year that has everything covered for getting yours off the ground. You can in fact get 38% off right now in honor of my 38th birthday last week (simply enter the code BIRTHDAY now through December 15th).

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we have recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Their big Cyber Sale is coming up where you can get 25% off sitewide. And good news! We simply learned it is in fact starting this Friday, November 22nd. Simply go to annieselke.com/YHL to check it out. Sales last through December 6th.

Thanks for listening!

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