I'm married to an engineer too but I have mine trained. Wasn't easy either!
I have to draw him a picture and say this is what I want! Nothing more, nothing less!.....Don't even think about it! It is easy, it is inexpensive and that's what I want. It's the inexpensive part that always works. He goes to his man cave and comes back up later with whatever it is that I wanted all made!
He made a top to put over my old ironing board that we bolted on from the bottom. If I ever need it to go back to a regular ironing board, I can easily do that. Works out beautifully.