Move _buildRequest() logic back into init

Some logic was pulled out of init to allow for unix socket support
via asynchronous connection attempts. Now that these async
connections are gone, this unnecessary and confusing split is
no longer needed. See #1186

I apologize to all of your future git blame attempts.
Merge pull request #1190 from FredKSchott/build-request-into-init

Move _buildRequest() logic back into init