Maximum Number of Zones

[astrogerard]

Would you mind clarifying what wires the three 4.7(s) are connected to?
Sure, the point is that all pins of the hc595 which are connected to the Pi have a 4K7 resistor to +5V

I see the first 4.7 is connected to Red +5 and Green (SER14)
Yes
Is the second 4.7 only connected to the Red +5 and the Brown (RCLK12) and not the Green (SER14)?
Yes, but "behind" the 100 Ohm resistor, so directly connected to the hc595
Is the third 4.7 only connected to the Red +5 and the Black (SRCLK11) and not the Green (SER14) and Brown (RCLK12)?
Yes

Can I power the RELAY MODULES by daisy chaining the Red wire from +5 pin to +5 pin to +5 pin to +5 pin or do I need to splice into the Red wire coming from the TOP POWER RAIL?
Depends on what you mean by "power the relay modules". If you mean VCC next to DI8 then Yes. But only with jumper removed. Later when everything works you can connect another power supply (so NOT the Pi) to JD_VCC. JD_VCC is powering the relay board while VCC is only providing +5V for the onboard leds and optocouplers

Is it me or is your current Fritzing significantly different than what I was attempting to construct/replicate?  Change can be a good thing.
It's you 
The only thing changed is removing the purple wire and pulling this wire to GND to permanent enable the HC595.
Additional to the original drawing is the R100 and 0.1uF filter. Also added are some stronger pullup (4K7) resistors since the inputs of the HC595 have a very high impedance, therefore a bit sensitive to noise or spikes.


--Gerard