Greg, I find that a lot of issues that cause the #2 attitude is where the Inspector gets out to a site for an inspection, finds that the HO has done something totally wrong and then the HO wants to argue that "it should be fine...why are you going to make me rip it out and do it again...that's just bogus"??
I find that if you politely ask the AHJ before you start something that you don't understand, many of them will help you out or point you in the right direction. It's a lot nicer for everyone involved to inspect something that's 90% right than something that's 110% wrong.
I had a Contrator in an office renovation make up their own rules and got gigged by the AHJ. His first whine was that "the plans clearly showed it", but that went away very quickly when the AHJ told him that I had stopped by the Village Hall weeks earlier and gone over my design intentions before I ever drew the plans up. A simple 15 minute improptu meeting with the AHJ and his boss prevented this guy from dragging us through the mud for his own mistakes.
