His Crazy Obsession for Perfection

Today I am going to pick on my husband who is an engineer. I think his brain is wired very differently because he is an engineer and he can drive me crazy with his neurotic obsessions with perfection in every task that he does around the house.

Back in May he bought more bricks to build a flower bed in our front yard. Now the moment he brought these home I was mad because on the opposite side of the drive way is a brick flowerbed that has not been finished.

He built it with the bricks 2 years ago but never filled it with dirt for me. Instead of a pretty flowerbed we grow pretty weeds and grass in an empty flowerbed. I wanted to fill this flowerbed long ago but he wouldn’t let me because he wanted to do something with the bricks. Last summer came and I couldn’t fill it because I was pregnant and just couldn’t manage moving all that dirt to fill it. This summer I have a baby on the go and there is no easy way to get out into the yard and fill it in either (to close to the road).

Now back to today’s flowerbed. In May he bought bricks to make a second flowerbed (or weed bed as I would call them). I was not happy but he said he would build it that weekend and finish them both. Haha, I said, no way and was I ever right. I don’t want to be right but he takes forever to do anything.

He has worked on this flowerbed every weekend since May and he just finished the first row of bricks. I blame this on the fact that he is an engineer who obsesses over all the wrong things. Picture this… he is out their with his tools, level, laser level and everything else to make sure that each brick is at the perfect height and they are nice and level. Anyone else would have built this in one day but not my husband. Oh no, he uses three different levels, adjusts each brick just so, so and drives me crazy the entire time.

What drives me the craziest about his need to perfectly engineer the bricks is the fact that the end product can be unfinished and look awful but that doesn’t matter because each brick has been perfectly positioned? I could just scream….All I want is a nice place to plant a few flowers!

He is this way with every project he does. I remember when we laid ceramic tile in our bathroom a few years ago and he was worse with the leveling on this project. The poor glue was setting faster than he could put down a tile. I am sure I drive him nuts because I am the exact opposite and will eye-ball everything and say looks good.

Does anyone else have an engineer for a husband who does these types of crazy things? OK he doesn’t have to be an engineer but does your husband obsess over tasks or never finish projects? I need to know I am not alone on this one…..

P.S. If my camera battery isn't dead tonight I will add a picture of my current weed bed for everyone to see. :)