I am looking for help with my exterior wall assembly. This is for a house with Stucco exterior and XPS foam. We are building a house in Climate Zone 3 (SF Bay Area). Required wall insulation here is R13, but I would like to do better and add 1 inch XPS foam to increase R value and eliminate thermal bridging.

I am confused about the appropriate wall assembly after reading several articles on GBA and other sites. Code requires “2 layers of Grade D building paper” over the OSB/Plywood.

Here are two wall assembly options I have in mind:

Option A:
1. Drywall
2. Blown-in cellulose insulation between 2×4 studs
3. OSB or Plywood sheathing
4. Grade D building paper
5. Tyvek Drainwrap
6. 1 inch unfaced XPS foam
7. Stucco lath nailed through foam into studs
8. 3-coat stucco installed directly over foam

Option B:
1 + 2. Same as above
3. Zip-system wall sheathing
4. Tyvek Drainwrap
5. 1 inch unfaced XPS foam
6. Stucco lath nailed through foam into studs
7. 3-coat stucco installed directly over foam

Here are my questions:
a. Which wall assembly Option is better?

b. Is there a better way to do the wall assembly? Did I miss something?

c. Is installing Tyvek Drainwrap over Grade D building paper ok? Code requires “two layers of grade D paper” and Tyvek counts as a substitute for one layer, so I need one additional layer. However, are there any issue installing Tyvek Drainwrap over a layer of Grade D paper?

d. What if I use regular Tyvek Building Paper instead of Grade D paper (so, Tyvek Drainwrap over Tyvek regular building paper)? Is it better? Any issues?

e. Should I use Plywood instead of OSB? It will cost about 60% more. Not sure if it makes sense in my case.

f. Can Tyvek Draiwrap be installed over Zipsystem sheathing, or will moisture get trapped between the two WRB layers?

g. Which is better from a moisture control perspective: Zipsystem or plywood+tyvek

h. What foam brand is recommended? I am considering the unfaced version of Foamular 150 board. Does that sound right? What other brands are out there?

i. Should the foam boards be installed with spacings to allow for contraction/expansion? Or can they be installed flush next to each other, possibly using the T&G flavor?

Appreciate any advice the community has.

Please note that this house is located in a Climate Zone 3 area with low humidity and low rainfall (16 inch precipitation/year). I did read the “install stucco right” article but feel that using furring strips over the foam and between the stucco is overkill for my region. The stucco will rarely get wet . On most other houses stucco is simply install over 2 layers of Grade D paper without any problems.