Les,
Congrats on the new camera! I'm sure you will love it. From what I can see, it is a fantastic camera.
Later this spring I will be adding a new camera here and the possibilities are good that it will be a VB-C50iR. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to take some pictures of the uninstalled camera so I can see what I would be working with before hand, so there are no surprises such as the one you had. I'd like to see how they ran the cables, as you described above. If you could take a few shots and email them in my direction, that would be fantastic. My email address is support@nhweatherdata.com.
As for your question about disconnecting the cable, running it through the wall and then reattaching it, my answer would be, without actually seeing it, yes, you should be able to do that. I'm sure that cable can be removed if it needed to be replaced, so it should come apart easy enough.
Good luck with the install and make sure to let us know when you have it up and running, so we can check it out.
Bob