So... I failed my first inspection today!

I installed a new water heater, after the previous one finally sprung a leak after 30 years of faithful service.

The inspector says I need a thermal expansion tank (though, apparently, the previous installation was fine without it?!)

Okay. I got the tank; I pretty much understand the principle; I'm going to splice it in to the cold water line. Maybe I'm overthinking this now, but I don't want to fail the inspection again. The instructions say to put it after the flexible connector, right next to the water heater. I would rather put it before the flexible connector. Is this okay?

Like I said, I may be overthinking this. But seriously, I also got failed because the earthquake bracing was not exactly one-third of the way down the tank (the way I read the code, it has to be within one-third). So I don't want to miss some fignya about how the expansion tank must be wherever I didn't put it, and I'll have to de-solder the whole business.

Can I put the connector downstream of the expansion tank?

My wife is like:
[img=https://imgflip.com/i/79dcgd]You can't fail the inspection if you don't get the permit![/img]