Hi Stever - also see some of these previous threads for some other discussion about modeling with solids and cutting up extended shapes.
This is basically a key difference between the NURBS modeling process and the polygon modeling process - with NURBS modeling booleans and cutting operations are a primary way of doing things and often times that will mean making an initial simple extended piece and then cutting it up rather than trying to sort of draw a net of 3D curves and then trying to fill them in, which is also possible but better reserved for more special situations.
Some of those threads may help to give you more of the idea of the different modeling mindset (as compared to polygon modeling) that you generally want to approach things with in MoI.
