Without excessive run-off, I'm not convinced all of the bark and Turface are adequately soaked. In my experience, the gritty mix picks up and holds more water than is immediately obvious. I have a lot of large plants in 5-10 gallon pots of gritty mix, some of which weigh 30 to 40 pounds when well watered, so I need help to lift them. They are all in drainage saucers that are 3-4 inches deep and 4-6 inches wider in diameter than the pots. I water them only about once every two weeks. I start by slowly pouring one to two quarts of plain water in the pot carefully distributed across the surface. About 10 minutes later, I slowly pour in another two to four quarts (depending on the pot size) with full strength foliage pro in it. I watch to see how much water drains into the saucer. I allow as much as two inches to collect in the saucer. Most of the time, the water will be absorbed back into the pot within 10-20 minutes. About once every 6 weeks or so, I water enough to almost fill the saucer. After about 20 minutes, I use turkey baster to remove excess water. Sometimes I get help from my DH to lift the pot out of the saucer long enough to pour excess water into a large pail. This is obviously not the ideal way to handle watering since the mix is not flushed each time I water. But in the six months my plants must live in a centrally heated house with fairly low light, they grow slowly. But they do grow with this regimen. They don't lose leaves or develop signs of inadequate watering. These compromises work for me. And I think they work for my plants. When my plants were in a more water retentive mix, I had no problems with excess runoff. My plants in gritty mix are actually getting flushed out more often than they were under my old regimen. And they definitely look better at the end of their six months indoors than the ones I had in peat-based mixes.

Thanks all. I do worry that they may not be re-potted as they should be, and that is why I want to add a little card with instructions (very simple and brief) or better yet a good website they can access. Also most of these people will be my long term patients, seeing me usually at least every 3-6 months. I will probably ask how the plant is doing and would be available for questions. I plan to put them in good, fast draining soil. I quickly wrote up some simple instructions that could be general for spiders and pothos. Let me know what you think and make suggestions if I am wrong. Water: These guys don’t like wet feet! Water when soil is dry to about an inch or so deep. You can almost wait until the plant is just starting to wilt. If you water too much you will start to see yellowing leaves that wilt and fall off, this is a sign of root rot, usually due to over-watering. Light: Bright but indirect light. Can survive and even thrive on florescent lighting indoors. Direct sun, like it would get outside, can sunburn the plant and it will lose leaves. When it has ideal light you will see plenty of new leaves forming, less than ideal lighting will cause long spaces between leaves and it will lose its variegation in color. Location: Not too close to a heater or an air-conditioner. Hanging baskets are beautiful, near a bright window or florescent lighting. It can tolerate humidity and would even enjoy it so a bathroom can be nice too. Feed: Any houseplant food, follow instructions. More is NOT better and can cause damage to tender roots. Plants need feeding more during peak growing season, spring and summer. Potting: Re-pot when roots begin to come out of the drainage holes. Never put into a much bigger pot. Always use a pot with a drainage hole. If you have a nice pot with no hole, simply use it as a pretty cover pot (keeping the bottom of the plant’s pot up out of pooled water). Use fast draining mix like for cactus and succulents and put in additional perlite.

While you can include all costs of the pool and landscape into a construction loan, pool and landscape may have little effect on the appraisal. That translates into a higher down payment or cash out of pocket up front. For example: Land+Design+Permits+Construction for a project that appraises at around $1.2 mil also appraises around $1.2 mil. At 80% LTV (loan to value) the client can borrow $960K. (75% = $900K). When we add solar (a CA requirement Jan 1), pool and landscape for about $150K more, the appraisal if we're lucky, increases $50-100K, increasing the loan $40-80K at 80% LTV. The effective loan on the solar/pool/landscape is 25-50%. If the market is less robust, the appraisal won't be affected creating a higher cash out of pocket requirement for loan recording. If you can wait until completion of the home, you can often get an updated higher appraisal and fund these with less cash out of pocket.

So the doors open in to the space... Would you be opposed to removing them? Sounds like this may be more of a relaxing space to hang out and play on the computer, than a true "work from home" office. You'll lose square footage if you do a built-in, but you could put one on the north wall. Float the desk in front of it facing the south wall, and angle a chaise at the window facing the view.