Nice setup, thanks! Just to note, the network-manager-* packages are now networkmanager-*, and the xf86-input-keyboard and xf86-input-mouse are no longer available (nor needed, I believe). Also, I see packages in your list for running under virtualization, so I'm assuming you aren't running your desktop on bare metal? I actually did a quick install using your guide on a spare machine just now, and it worked great apart from the above changes. Very nimble and usable on an old HP Stream Mini desktop with 4GB of RAM.
Thanks so much for the feedback, and I'm glad it is working for you. Yes, I was using this in VirtualBox. I now use it on bare metal, so I may show how that differentiation is made. I made the updates to the blog post.