More model homes, more floor plans, more sore feet, more time on the road.

The Great House hunt started as a plan to build a simple, compact, log home. After all, we’ve lived — for the most part — in a 950 square foot condo in Arlington for the past 23 years, so why do we now need 2600 square feet, two floors, a large deck and so on?

A simple bungalo would do. You know, something with a den, a spare bedroom for occasional weekend guests and a small yard that won’t take all day to mow. For the past two decades, yard work meant sweeping off the Astroturf on the balcony.

Going to build a new home on 105 acres we own right where Floyd and Carroll counties meet just off Buffalo Mountain road.

Which means looking at floor plans, model homes and builder samples — lots of them.

First we go to Galax to look at a model. Have to be there by 2 p.m. Then off to Mt. Airy to look at another. Over lunch, Amy finds another model in a brochure and says we just have to see it — in Lexington (North Carolina, not Virginia). By the time we finish house looking, we’re less than 60 miles from South Carolina.

Got back home late — really late.

Still trying to play catchup here.

Wasn’t life in the mountains supposed to be relaxed? Why am I running so far behind?

At least once a week one of our friends in “that area up North,” otherwise known as the greater Washington, DC, metro area, asked the question:

“So, what’s the main difference between life here and down there in the hills?”

Our usual, flippant, answer is that “the employees at the drive-through at Hardees speak English” but there are other differences.

For example:

A traffic jam is three cars backed up at the county’s only stop light.

Gas stations close at 10 p.m. Miss the window of opportunity and it could mean sleeping in the studio (been there, done that).

Last year at this time, Southwestern Virginia still suffered through a drought.

Not this year. More rain on Tuesday, more rain forecast today, more rain for later in the week.

Lord will it ever end?

Anybody got an ark?