I've never forgotten the lesson - sometimes spending money saves money.

I run into this all the time with my OCD oriented engineer DH. He does things to tolerances that are required to minimize the risk of a nuclear meltdown, as opposed to the job on hand, such as putting in a patch of drywall, which was my first clue with him. I was rehabbing a 250 year old house when we started dating, and indeed just about the only time I had to "date" was if he came to help me hang drywall. I left him with a small job to do and went off to tackle a bigger project upstairs, only to realize it had been over an hour since I had seen him start what should have been a 5 minute job. I found him pulling the piece of drywall out one more time to shave a miniscule amount off for a more precise fit. Instead I grabbed a piece of 2x4 and tapped it into place. That patch didn't need screws and almost didn't need tape and mud!

But he was and is a perfect fit for me, even 32 years and multiple home rehabs later. I've come to accept his OCD hours long search for something that costs a nickel, and he turns a blind eye to what he termed my "anal unretention," (strong attention to detail with what looks like zero organization: if you put things away I will never remember where they are, but leave them around and I can pinpoint their location exactly, because I will remember where I left it.) He has forced me to test my gut instincts on real estate and other investments by putting them into spreadsheet form, (which is the easiest way to convince an engineer that an idea is good, and to track your results,) and I have upped his risk tolerance.

Ironically, that is the one house I lost money on, because I couldn't chose the time to sell, with a job transfer for DH making it necessary during a bad housing market and the house not yet perfect. Our buyer sold two years later at twice the price she bought it for. But that job opened my eyes to what a great guy DH was and was worth every penny it cost.

IP,
glad there's nothing to discuss in the economy ;-)