A good O & M (Operations & Maintenance) manual is a good idea Pat regardless of construction type(s). However most people, myself included don't have one.
Heck, the last place I worked at (renewable energy lab) had woefully inadequate to non-existent manuals for its numerous facilities.
Actually the eclectic mix of construction styles/methods is not the major concern. Of greater importance is the mix of systems that are not the average run-of-the-mill-every-tech-can-fix-it sort of things. From the ERV system to the air to air and geothermal heat pumps, in-floor and in ceiling hydronics, pairs of thermostats in some spaces, T'stats wired to 3 position switches to control exhaust or circulating fans so you can force the fan to run, prevent the fan from running or let the fan run as decided by the t'stat.
I have 2 variable speed blowers on my range hood, one exhausting air (blower mounted on roof to hold down the noise and another in the front porch attic to supply make up air and provide an air curtain to prevent exhausting conditioned air. The two air to air heat pumps have outdoor T'stats to switch from heat pump operation to propane furnace at a given outdoor temp which is picked according to the efficiency curve of the high SEER heat pumps, current cost of a KWH of electricity, and the efficiency of the propane furnace and the cost of propane.
I have two electric water heaters neither of which have their heating elements connected to power. One is used as a storage tank for hot water produced by the geothermal heat pump and is the water circulated through floors and ceilings while the other is heated by a water to water heat exchanger that gives heat from the first mentioned tank to heat the second mentioned tank by turning on a circulation pump when the heat sensor of tank two calls for heat. Notice I said heat sensor not thermostat. I had to build an interface circuit with a couple relays in it to "trick out" the system so it thinks there is a simple set of T'stat contacts on tank two and to meet a second requirement of turning on the circulating pump.
There is a timer and T'stat controlled recirc pump to ensure hot water at the far end of the house (master suite) without having to waste a lot of water running it till it gets hot.
Satellite TV2 is controlled by a radio transmitting remote control but that TV is located in the sitting room and is two steel reinforced concrete walls away from the Satellite receiver and the signal won't make it. There is only one coax from the home run location to the sitting room. Luckily there is a way with diplexers/splitter-combiners and ingenuity to send the TV signal from the satellite box to the home run area then from there to the sitting room TV and the remote control signal (widely differing frequencies) back from the sitting room through the same coax to the home run area and then from there to the satellite box mixed in with the signal from the dish. The dish signal and is separated out and sent from the home run to the Satellite box where it is separated out from the combined signal and sent to the Sat boxes remote antenna connection. (The above is the readers Digest version, not the entire story in detail.)
A high priority is to make a simple check list that my wife can follow it to turn on the TV, surround sound system (including wireless side and rear channels) and be able to watch TV without depending on me. Only 3 remotes are needed to control TV1. You can watch TV2 with only one remote if you manually turn on the satellite box. Of course, watching a tape, playing a DVD, or watching home movies or digital camera pix or whatever is another matter.
I think you probably get my drift regarding needing a check list for the wife to watch TV and a manual for the various systems.
Pat