Thanks everyone for your input! I decided to monitor his drinking but let him drink every 2-3 hours and both before & after our walks. It's been working well so far! I work from home so this is possible for me.
I will also post elsewhere, but confining him more conservatively has also helped with the housebreaking. I work in a 12x13ft room and figured he can be in the room with me while I work, but he's become a speedy pee-er and has peed in random places without any warning (no sniffing!). So i used an X pen to confine him in one quarter of the room and that has helped tremendously...he was a bit upset at first since he's used to using the whole room, but after a whole day he's accepted it as his play area and has fun on his own as long as I am near
Thanks again!