When All You’ve Got Is a Culvert and a Prayer

This spring has been nuts.

Between the weather mood swings, managing projects, and trying to keep up with life, it honestly feels like we’re working 100 hours a week and somehow still spinning in place. So when I sat down to write this week’s blog for The Builder’s Wife, and the only milestone we had to talk about was… culverts?

I almost said forget it.

Like really? After all this hustle, the only update I’ve got is a glorified drainage pipe?

But then I took a breath—and a step back—and remembered: this is still a good season. Progress doesn’t always show up looking like framing or drywall. Sometimes it looks like a concrete tube under a pile of dirt. Sometimes, it looks like just holding the line while everything around you is muddy.

And boy it’s been muddy… See mud below ⬇️

Have you ever had to really think about what something was in order to write about it—or even form an opinion on it?

That was me today, staring at this stage in our own new custom home build.

And the stage we’re in is… installing the culvert that will soon become the bridge for our driveway.

It seems so small, maybe even a little silly. But this little moment—the culvert—is the very thing that’s been holding up the entire process.

Well… that and the building department, who’s had our application tucked away somewhere cozy for a little over two months now.

This is the part where you get twitchy. Where you want to kick something. Where it feels like nothing is happening, even though everything is quietly aligning in the background. It’s like reading a story where the plot stalls and the pages stick—and you want so badly to skip ahead, but you can’t, because the foundation’s yet to be poured.

These behind-the-scenes pieces—like building permits and culverts—they’re easy to overlook. But they’re not just background noise. They’re structure. They’re momentum disguised as delay.

And then today, Mark sent me a photo.

The culvert is in.

Both of them, actually. Which means next up: driveways. And once those are in? We’re rolling. Trucks, dirt, digging—the good stuff.

Now listen, I’m a builder’s wife, not the builder. So if you’re like me, you may have had to Google what exactly a culvert does (zero shame). But here’s the deal:

A culvert is a structure that lets water pass under a road or driveway. It keeps things from flooding or washing out—especially important when you’re building a home and don’t want your beautiful new entrance turning into a swamp.

Think of it like building a little home for a local forest troll to dwell under—while you get a sturdy, charming bridge to cross into the life you’ve been designing.

So yes, today’s update is “just” a culvert. But to us, it’s more than that.

It’s proof that even the smallest progress is still progress.

And maybe it’s the culverts that remind us: sometimes, the step that feels the least exciting is actually the one that makes everything else possible.

We’re ready for good. We’re ready for big. But for today—we’ll take the culvert.

The Builder’s Wife 💙

Always rooting for progress (even when it hides in a drainage pipe)

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