By

 JOHN CLAYTON

So, not quite everything is bigger in Texas.

The husband-and-wife team of Todd and Shari Snyder gambled that Texans would embrace life on the tiny side when they launched their family business, Hill Country Tiny Houses.

After considering taking a plunge into the home remodeling business, the Snyders opted to join the “tiny house movement,” which is as much about lifestyle as square footage.

Shari Snyder, the company’s chief designer and marketer, says most people who opt for tiny homes want to downsize both their lives and their debt. She says many who have contacted her searching for tiny houses are women between the ages of 45 and 65 and young couples and singles looking to save money.

“Most of our clients have found their ‘why,’ and it’s strong enough for them to make a change,’” she says. “They spend two or three hours a day stressed out about money, and all of their weekends are filled with big house projects. They’re bogged down with a high debt load. What do you want more than a big house? For most of them, it’s to be debt free.”

Tiny houses, which typically offer less than 500 square feet of living space, began to gain popularity about a decade ago as the U.S. struggled through a recession. Tiny houses offered an alternative to high real estate prices and mobility for an increasingly transient population.

“Millenials don’t necessarily know where they’re going to be or where their jobs are going to take them,” Shari Snyder says. “So, instead of worrying about rents and housing, why not take your house with you?”

Houses from Hill Country Tiny Houses range from $90 per square foot to $150 or more for park model designs that sit on land and $150-$300 for THOW’s (tiny house on wheels) per square foot for higher-end designs.

Going ‘Tiny’

The entire Snyder family – Todd and Shari and daughters Elisabeth and Christianna and son Andrew – all worked together to remodel what Shari was sure would be her forever home.

“We found this ugly duckling and tore it all apart and did all the work ourselves for the family,” she says. The result was a 2,200-square-foot dream home with a pool in the backyard.

At the same time, the idea of the tiny house business was in the back of their minds. Then-teen daughters Elisabeth and Christianna had worked with their father on regular-sized renovations and encouraged a leap into a family business centered around construction.

Soon enough, Hill Country Tiny Houses was born in Kerrville, Texas, and the Snyders were faced with more life and lifestyle choices. With both daughters off to college, the remaining Snyders had to consider tiny house living as well as tiny house building.

“We did all that work on the house, so we should enjoy it right? I thought maybe I’d put the big house up on Airbnb for six months so I could experience the tiny house lifestyle and gain an understanding of what’ it’s like,” Shari Snyder says. “Then I could design them better and go back to my big house and live happily ever after.”

But that’s not where the Snyders would find happily ever after. That came in a smaller package. “The more I got into it, the more I said, ‘No, if you’re going to build and sell that product you need to believe in it, live in it,” Shari Snyder says. “That way, you can better help your clients from that perspective. So, we sold the big house, burned the mortgage, and we’ve been living tiny for over a year.”

Big exposure

Todd Snyder built “Vintage Retreat,” the 384-square-foot house where he, his wife and son live now. Shari Snyder, a professional marketer and “self-taught designer” made it a tiny home by putting those design skills to work. “I just really intuitively design things how I like them, and it just so happens that other people like them, too,” she says.

The Snyders wheeled “Vintage Retreat” to the National Tiny House Jamboree in October of 2017, where it got the notice of producers from the HGTV cable network and two others. HGTV considered featuring a Hill Country Tiny Houses build in Austin, but settled eventually on another build along the picturesque Llano River for its show, “Tiny Paradise.”

Filming for the episode took place in April of 2018, and it originally aired this past August.

Todd Snyder and son Andrew were featuredin the episode, completing the tiny house dubbed “Bohemian Bungalow” in six weeks with a budget of $75,000.

By the time the Snyders returned to the 2018 National Tiny House Jamboree in August, the house was already a hit. “Over 2,000 people came through the house in two days,” Shari Snyder says.

Since the HGTV appearance, business has picked up with multiple builds taking place at once. “That’s something we didn’t envision happening,” Shari Snyder says.

The appearance on “Tiny Paradise” has also led to another show called “Tiny Town Texas” that was to debut on several streaming services this past January.

“Tiny Town Texas” chronicles the Snyder’s development of a tiny house community in Fredericksburg. “We’ve seen that the majority of people who live in tiny houses have similar values about family, friends and faith, and we want to foster that in a community,” Shari Snyder says. “We have ideas that within our community, people can also run tiny enterprises like a coffee house or a massage studio. Our focus is on wellness for body, soul and spirit — physical wellness, financial wellness, and emotional wellness. We want our community to help everybody who lives there to achieve those goals together.”