@dleverette When making 5:1:1 mix, I break-up the compressed chunks of peat so they pass through a 1/2" screen. I toss any sticks and such on top of the raised beds where they break down with time. Here's a tip you'll find very helpful. For large batches of 5:1:1, pour the bark onto a tarp laid on a flat surface, then wet the bark a bit. Then, add the screened peat and spread it over the bark. Add your lime on top of the peat, then put down the perlite and wet that. The trick is to use just enough water to make the mix damp when it's thoroughly mixed. Both peat and pine bark are hydrophobic (water repellent) when allowed to dry below about 20% of their water holding ability. This makes a dry 5:1:1 mix extremely difficult to rewet if you don't moisten it when you make it. The moisture in the mix diffuses, moistening the bark/ peat and "breaking" its tendency to repel water. Within 15-30 minutes of making the mix you can pot plants and water them in thoroughly w/o the frustration associated with trying to rehydrate a dry soil. FWIW, I don't use coir. As many times as I've tried it and cone comparative experiments, I've always had problems or been dissatisfied with the results. You might be interested in a comparison between peat and coir I wrote several years back: Peat vs. Coir Sphagnum peat and coir have nearly identical water retention curves. They both retain about 90-95% of their volume in water at saturation and release it over approximately the same curve until they both lock water up so tightly it's unavailable for plant uptake at about 30-33% saturation. Coir actually has less loft than sphagnum peat, and therefore, less aeration. Because of this propensity, coir should be used in mixes at lower %s than peat. Because of the tendency to compact, in the greenhouse industry coir is primarily used in containers in sub-irrigation (bottom-watering) situations. Many sources produce coir that is high in soluble salts, so this can also be an issue. Using coir as the primary component of container media virtually eliminates lime or dolomitic lime as a possible Ca source because of coir's high pH (6+). Gypsum should be used as a Ca source, which eliminates coir's low S content. All coir products are very high in K, very low in Ca, and have a potentially high Mn content, which can interfere with the uptake of Fe. Several studies have also shown that the significant presence of phenolic allelochemicals in fresh coir can be very problematic for a high % of plants, causing poor growth and reduced yields. I haven't tested coir thoroughly, but I have done some testing of CHCs (coconut husk chips) with some loose controls in place. After very thoroughly leaching and rinsing the chips, I made a 5:1:1 soil of pine bark:peat:perlite (which I know to be very productive) and a 5:1:1 mix of CHCs:peat:perlite. I planted 6 cuttings of snapdragon and 6 cuttings of Coleus (each from the same plant to help reduce genetic influences) in containers (same size/shape) of the different soils. I added dolomitic lime to the bark soil and gypsum to the CHC soil. After the cuttings struck, I eliminated all but the three strongest in each of the 4 containers. I watered each container with a weak solution of MG 12-4-8 with STEM added at each watering, and watered on an 'as needed basis', not on a schedule. The only difference in the fertilizer regimen was the fact that I included a small amount of MgSO4 (Epsom salts) to provide MG (the dolomitic lime in the bark soil contained the MG, while the gypsum (CaSO4) in the CHC soil did not. This difference was necessary because or the high pH of CHCs and coir.) for the CHC soil. The results were startling. In both cases, the cuttings grown in the CHC's exhibited < 1/2 the biomass at summers end as the plants in the bark mix. I just find it very difficult for a solid case to be made (besides "It works for me") for the use of coir or CHC's. They're more expensive and more difficult to use effectively. The fact that some believe peat is in short supply (no where near true, btw) is easily offset by the effect of the carbon footprint of coir in its trek to the US from Sri Lanka or other exotic locales. That's the view from here. YMMV Coir Study: https://sites.google.com/site/plantandsoildigest/usu-crop-physiology-laboratory/coconut-coir-studies Al

You should have moistened the ingredients while mixing to help incorporate and activate the Lime.....so I'd recommend that you dump some water - a little at a time - into your mix and shovel it around thoroughly. You really want the bark to have absorbed moisture, otherwise you might end up with dry-spots in your containers. Everything else sounds good, as far as I can tell. Josh

I like the idea of a single daybed with a trundle. A queen is ONLY 60 wide, but it is 75 long....geeze, Louise, that leaves room for a pocket door to open and them to jump over the footboard and land in the bed? I would not even have side tables taking up precious floor space. I would have drop down shelves. You might do well to take a look at some of the newer motor homes, which have so many builtins including the bed. You can always think about a full size bed but that only saves 6 inches, since full is 54 inches wide instead of 60. Having lived on a house boat for 10 years and owned a 31 foot sailboat for another 5 which I sometimes stayed on, and then worked for 20 years on offshore vessels, I'm used to confined quarters where carpenters used every available inch for something. Is there a closet in this room? I'd remove the door to it and put all necessary stuff in that space. I'd even put the storage for their bags, and I'd also make any bed a storage bed with drawers below.....but only with a twin would you have room enough to open those drawers. Unless you just put shelves below the bed. Anyway, I know you wish to provide Triple A first class accommodations, but think about it before you invest a lot of money into a guest room. They might just as easily find space in the living room set up with a sofa bed and the door closed too. And you'd have that square little room for other purposes.

Like pal said you could make it a wet room. You could look for pictures of bathrooms on boats for inspiration. When I did college visits with my daughter, one of our hotel rooms had a tiny bathroom. (Kellogg Center at Michigan State, if by any chance you happen to live near there.) I wish I hadn't deleted the pics I took but I'll try to describe... front left corner was the door; back left corner was sink; back right corner was toilet. The shower was in the front right corner with a ceiling mounted shower head. There was a ceiling mounted track for a shower curtain and a drain in that area. When the curtain was open it was not at all in the way and the shower floor space just became part of the room. (There was no curb or step around the shower it was just one continuous floor in the bathroom.) There was a teak mat in front of the sink in case the whole floor got wet. I don't remember but I'm sure the floor had to be slightly sloped toward the drain. I wouldn't want it as my only bathroom but it certainly worked for our short term use and I think would work OK for occasional use. Your layout above would not work with a walled shower because, as mentioned, you wouldn't have room to get to the toilet. But with a ceiling mounted shower head (so it sprays down, not out toward the room) and a ceiling mounted track for a shower curtain that you could push aside, it *might* work. Obviously the floor would need to slope toward a drain under the shower head.