OP: Grouping vs layers - I need to go watch those basecamp videos again. There was one guy who worked one way and another guy promoting the other way.
*Absoultly, use the way that best fits your needs and modeling style. Just a suggestion

OP: Since you offered, I'd certainly be interested to see any changes you or anybody else wants to share.

i will have to see about that now due to time restraints. During the holidays i had time on my hands, but now things are starting to get rolling again

OP: and was sort of amused and bewlidered waching what the "orient faces" did and didn't do to the various faces - wondering why some faces are associated with the command and others aren't.

SU has to guess as to which faces should go out and which faces should go in. For a human that logic is simple to evaluate, but to put that into an algorithm and have perfect results every time is quite challenging. The only info available to the program is the faces normal(vector3d) and the surrounding objects. I suppose it could be made perfect, but the compute time might take hours 😄

OP: I should probaby just pull the walls out to represent the added thickness of the siding. I'm just trying to get the dimensions correct so no officials are surprised. Actually, the sheathing should be overhanging the foundation ... <mumbling noises>.

i would create the thickness using the [PP] tool and just "paint" it with a texture. That way those "sadistic" officials will get what they need. 😄. Then you can pull it over the foundation quite easily. In this case you really DO need to apply the window afterward.

Good Luck, come back any time