Why don't you consider a moka pot or a pour over for the coffee and wait to buy an espresso machine?
For some strange reason, I see coffee roasting in your future.
I'm the same way about the investing for the long run and firmly believe a couple hundred extra on a grinder puts you in a whole different league, and wouldn't write off refurbished equipment which, in many cases, was simply a return. Not that the Rocky won't serve you well for many years. It sure has a lot of fans and combines with the Silvia in many happy homes.
In my case, after a long and grueling grinder research, the 2 I came down to were the Mazzer Mini and Macap M4 stepless. The Macap ended up on my counter next to my Brasilia and I am very happy, but a little broke.
I did some mods on my Macap, like taking off the "beauty ring", or the useless black numbered ring that you can't read the numbers on for the adjustments, painted it silver, and then put in black lines so seeing the tiniest adjustments was easier. You may be able to see the white arrow I put on it to show my "point zero".
Every grinder, in my opinion, has one or two design flaws that really should be improved.
