Let Freedom Ring
Shari’s Favorite products for tiny living: shop our Tiny Town Furniture and Decor store.
We are so excited to continue on our coffee journey and bring you all along with us! We’ve recently kicked off our social media and have linked both our Instagram and Facebook below for you if you want to check those out and see what fun adventures we get up to!
We’re working on creating an e-commerce site to share our custom house blend with all of you – stay alert for more details on that coming soon!
We’ve been stationed in Boerne the last 20 months. Our intention was to be there just a few months. We moved to Kerrville 8.5 years ago from Michigan. We miss being closer in proximity to the beautiful supportive community and network we built in Kerrville socially, spiritually, and professionally. So we are happy to announce after much searching, we have found a prime location where we can park our tiny house, our tiny office, and set up manufacturing with visibility on a major highway. Due to a current zoning issue, we can not put up a sign, but you will find us working at 3105 Memorial Blvd. Kerrville, TX 78028, right on the Guadalupe River! Text Shari to set an appointment for a tour. 830-285-5909.
We are looking for assistant builders to apprentice and work alongside Todd Snyder, the owner, and his son, Andrew, as they build tiny houses in Kerrville, TX. If you have skilled trades, it would be by contract. For those looking for a job, we pay hourly and it’s a flexible schedule. We start interns at $10 and up to $20 an hour with experience. Workdays include Monday through Saturday 9-5. Choose at least three days that work best for you. These tiny houses are built on trailers that Todd engineers and transports across Texas. Job includes learning all the trades, including welding, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, roofing, siding, tiling, windows/doors/floors/cabinets install, etc. For example, a Dr from Houston has commissioned us to build a veterinary clinic/tiny home.
About us:
We build beautiful inspiring tiny homes in the Kerrville area and deliver them all across Texas. Our homes have been featured on HGTV, DIY, Netflix, global magazines like Daily Mail, New Atlas, and local magazines like Hill Country Culture.
Email shari@hillcountrytinyhouses.com
Independent Sales Representative
This is a commission-based position where you will follow up on leads we collect (not cold calling- phew!). Interns accepted. A passion for people and being able to explain the benefits of ‘tiny living’ are celebrated attributes. While the part-time position affords the opportunity to work from anywhere in the US, there’s a possibility for a full-time position in the future that would require being located or re-located to the Kerrville, TX area.
About us: We build beautiful inspiring tiny homes in the Kerrville area and deliver them all across Texas. Our homes have been featured on HGTV, DIY, Netflix, global magazines like Daily Mail, New Atlas, and local magazines like Hill Country Culture.
Email resume to shari@hillcountrytinyhouses.com
Trading Ordinary Space for Extraordinary Adventures
by Shari Snyder
Two years ago, our family designed and built 384 square feet of “tiny luxury on wheels” to replace our 4 bedroom/2 bath “forever home”. Our “why” was to realize our family values and mission, living in a real house, without a 30-year mortgage haunting us. We didn’t want to be a slave to debt and experience the pain of regret. Having two children leave the nest and a 12 year old still at home, experience told us you can never go back. Relationships produce the greatest joy in life. As pioneers and business owners in the tiny house movement, our journey has not been easy, but we can honestly say the adventure, simplicity, freedom, and family closeness, that tiny living has brought us, are worth it!
Trading Stuff for Adventure
Since becoming minimalists, we have found many unexpected joys and adventures. We have found the joy of collecting memories, not stuff! Life is short. You only live once. Why not go on an adventure, take a risk, and try something new? We have launched two companies, been featured on HGTV, Daily Mail, The Sun, New Atlas, and travelled the country in our tiny home. Doing the things that awaken passion and make you feel alive, is an adventure worth pursuing!
Trading Space for Freedom
We traded unused space in our big house for more time and freedom. We have the power to choose where we want to live, what we want to do, and how we want to spend our increased free time. Every day is a new adventure full of new choices, including our career paths. We are passionate about building environmentally healthy tiny home communities for families to thrive in. We are on a mission to pay it forward and help others discover adventure, freedom, and simplicity, through tiny house living. Our motto is, “Shrink your house, not your dreams.”
Trading Stress for Simplicity
Live MORE by owning LESS! Less stuff equates less stress, plain and simple. We had no idea how heavy the burden of financial debt was until it was gone. Being debt free and mortgage free cannot be underestimated or understood until one experiences it! To kiss our debt good-bye after 23 years of marriage, is priceless! The weight of all our possessions was keeping us from a life of true freedom. Instead of spending 3 ½ hours cleaning, we are done in 30 minutes. We don’t have to maintain a big yard, clean the pool, or fix things around the house. We have claimed back our weekends for hobbies, fun, and family adventures!
Total Wellness
As a wellness lifestyle coach for 17 years, I have helped hundreds of clients improve their physical, environmental, financial, and personal health and wellness. My passion to achieve total wellness for body, soul, and spirit, was a perfect fit to embrace minimalism and tiny living. I’ve already shared some of the benefits for financial and personal health and wellness. Let’s review some of the mental and environmental health benefits we experienced too.
Mental Health
Clutter in my physical environment created chaos in my mental state. A lifestyle of minimalism, began to replace the stress and anxiety with more clarity and focus, resulting in more peace. Having a place for everything and everything in its place, simply helps you function at your best. We have found so much joy in living with less. We don’t collect things that don’t add value to our lives.
When I was downsizing, instead of asking, “What can I live without?”, I began to ask, “What do I need to live?”. The mindset of simplicity transformed our shopping habits and carried over into every area of our lives, including how we operate our companies.
Environmental Health
Of course, the actual build process is environmentally friendly and the ongoing costs of utilities are about 70% less, but the choice of materials we build with also promotes environmental health. For example, we use Rockwool insulation, a wool like material that is mildew and fire resistant, has a R value of 15, is very economical, and also deadens sound. We install a fresh air ventilation system and whole house water purification to promote wellness as well.
In addition, we use and promote a line of eco-friendly cleaning products that are up to 12 x concentrated. This saves an enormous amount of space inside, as well as plastic for the environment, and makes the air inside the tiny house free of outgassing and polution.
In an unprecedented study, PhD student Maria Saxton looked at 80 people who downsized to tiny homes to quantify whether their environmental footprints really got smaller. She reports an 86% positive effect on environment and a reduction of 45% in carbon footprint. In the final sentence, Maria says, “In sum, I found that downsizing was an important step toward reducing ecological footprints and encouraging pro-environmental behaviors.” Read entire article here.
I am an advocate for wellness, people, and community building. As a wellness lifestyle coach of 17 years, my focus is on total wellness for body, soul, and spirit. That includes physical, environmental, financial, and personal goals. As the Chief Hope Giver of Tiny Town Texas, my mission is helping people trade ordinary space for an extraordinary lifestyle
We are Tiny House Dwellers, Designers, and Builders. After downsizing from the large 4 bedrooms, a 2 car garage, and in-ground pool home, to live in the 390 square feet we built on HGTV, we are now educating the world on this high-quality, low-impact lifestyle. As pioneers of this movement of minimalism and tiny house living, our motto is: “Shrink your house, not your dreams”.
What’s NEXT for the Snyder Family?
Our vision is to be a part of a community of likeminded people working towards a common goal of creating and sustaining meaningful relationships as part of a holistic lifestyle. Follow our journey as we design and develop beautiful inspiring communities for families to thrive in for years to come. We call it Tiny Town Texas, more than a place to be ~ a place to belong.
Hill Country Tiny Houses has partnered with the founder of Bigelow Homes to create an extraordinary solution for affordable housing in pocket neighborhoods that can be duplicated across the country. Stay tuned…
FEEL THE DIFFERENCE
Imagine for a moment that you are in your new home. You step out your front door onto a large porch and look out to see children playing catch in a spacious green park or trying to climb one of the many beautiful trees. Your neighbors across the park wave hello from their porches while the scent of roses from the park drifts over to you in the breeze. Your friend next door steps out to walk her dog and you invite her to sit with you for a cup of coffee. You enjoy the friendly conversation while the sound of children laughing, chatter from other porches and the wind in the trees melds in the background.
BIGELOW’S POCKET NEIGHBORHOOD *Used with permission from Bigelow Homes website
At Bigelow Homes we don’t do typical neighborhoods. You won’t find garage fronted houses facing high speed, unsafe streets with sidewalks that are unable to be walked on because cars are parked across them. Instead, you’ll find a real neighborhood that has been thoughtfully designed so that each home faces a welcoming and beautifully landscaped pocket park with a front porch that is meant to be lived on and enjoyed, making them the perfect place to work, play, and relax. We believe that neighborhoods are a way of life, not just where you go to sleep every night.
Bigelow Homes has been building neighborhoods for 40 years and was honored to receive the most prestigious award in the housing industry, the National Builder of the Year Award. We became the nation’s first developer and builder of highly energy efficient homes in the early 1980’s. Our emphasis on energy conservation naturally led to an interest in cultural and social sustainability. This interest became a deep rooted passion and has resulted in the following practices applied to each neighborhood we design.
Todd and I are buried in work, meeting a deadline to submit a pocket neighborhood Proposal to the city! The City came to us about a year ago to help with their housing crises. We have assembled a winning team of consultants and developers! Now to gain their approval for all the unique pieces this project will require…
Stay tuned…
Our proposed project is a cottage-type neighborhood design that has every modern comfort with a little Hill Country flair.
A pocket neighborhood is essentially a cluster of homes gathered together around a shared open space that affords residents the chance to get to know their neighbors and be a part of the community.
(Think of a cul-de-sac, but with parking behind the homes and instead of facing concrete, picture a beautiful green space.)
It’s different from a traditional neighborhood because there’s a function: The front porch has to be big enough so you can sit on it on a Sunday morning as your neighbor walks by. Most of the pocket neighborhoods are groups of up to 12 homes and act like villages within towns.
They share a lot of the same traits:
What homeowners say about Bigelow Neighborhoods and Homes…
“We really love our home and the neighborhood. There is a very warm feeling when you enter the subdivision. Our lot is perfect. Even our friends have commented that there is a good feeling in the neighborhood.”
– Michael & Verna B.
“We love our house. It is above and beyond our expectations. The quality of the construction is better than the homes twice the price across the street. Thank you Bigelow Homes!”
– F. Mulligan
“I believe that the HomeTown subdivision is one of the best I’ve seen. It is so inviting to everyone that visits me. They always ask, “are they still building and can I see a model?” The neighborhood is beautifully arranged with landscaping, the pond, the ducks, and the friendly atmosphere.”
– J. Club
Beautiful, built extremely well from slab up, and I feel blessed to have an energy efficient, quality home in a unique spot for a great price!
– Gwendolyn K.
We are extremely pleased with Bigelow Homes. We’ve been recommending you to friends and family and even blogged about your great work. The home is beautiful and as we expected.
– Eugene E.
www.bigelowhomes.com
I’m launching ? an exclusive premiere course the end of February! (limit of 23 Founder’s Group spots)
The Magic of Minimalism:
Shari’s “Downsize NOW Method”. This course empowers people to make space for more JOY, productivity, meaningful relationships, and quality of life.
Is this course for me?
? I want to trade ordinary stuff for an extra-ordinary lifestyle!
? I am sick of the energy-zapping stress of overwhelming clutter?
? I am ready to divorce clutter and chaos
? I want to marry peace and productivity for my future life
? I want MORE…
? emotional and mental peace
? quality of life
***Note: Although Shari downsized her family from 2,600 square feet to a tiny home of less than 400 square feet, the method works wherever you’re at right now.
www.magicofminimalism.com
WHO THIS COURSE IS NOT FOR:
? tire kickers
? Curious stalkers
? those who are unmotivated to change
? those who are fearful of change
If you are accepted, do you promise to complete the homework before our first day together?
Do you promise to participate and bring value to this exclusive group of like-minded world changers?
DO NOT SHARE THIS EXCLUSIVE INVITATION!
There are only 23 spots for this live premiere launch program so you will want to secure your spot BEFORE we launch it the end of February. That’s when we will open it to the public including our 37,000 followers on social media.
(after you go through it, you may share it with your friends and receive referral benefits, but subsequent courses will be pre-recorded, not LIVE!)
NEXT STEP: request to join the private facebook group “The Magic of Minimalism“, answer the questions. Only people in this group can apply to be a Founder’s Group Member.
3 motivations to downsize? take poll. not burden my children with all this stuff. get control of my life. 3?
Must answer questions before you can be invited. To be invited does not mean your application will be accepted. We have limited access to this first program to just 23 people.
POLL: What is your biggest challenge to downsizing your belongings? Multiple choice: Emotional attachment, family members, no extra time, no motivation.
EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!! Just released! You can read the entire article here. Thank you, all, for voting on bio photo choice, outfits, and the title for my article! ENJOY!!
Read Magazine here.
The Joys of becoming Minimalist
by Shari Snyder
Two years ago, our family designed and built 384 square feet of “tiny luxury on wheels” to replace our 4 bedroom/2 bath “forever home”. Our “why” was to pursue/realize our family values and mission, living in a real house, without a 30-year mortgage haunting us. We didn’t want to be a slave to debt and experience the pain of regret. Having two children leave the nest and a 12 year old still at home, experience told us you can never go back. Relationships produce the greatest joy in life. As pioneers and business owners in the tiny house movement, our journey has not been easy, but we can honestly say the adventure, simplicity, freedom, and family closeness, that tiny living has brought us, are worth it!
Trading Stuff for Adventure!
Since becoming minimalists, we have found many unexpected joys and adventures. We have found the joy of collecting memories, not stuff! Life is short. You only live once. Why not go on an adventure, take a risk, and try something new? We have launched two companies, been featured on HGTV, Daily Mail, The Sun, New Atlas, and travelled the country in our tiny home.
Doing the things that awaken passion and make you feel alive, is worth pursuing!
Trading Space for Freedom!
We traded unused space in our big house for more time and freedom. We have the power to choose where we want to live, what we want to do, and how we want to spend our increased free time. Every day is a new adventure full of new choices, including our career paths. We are passionate about building environmentally healthy tiny home communities for families to thrive in. We are on a mission to pay it forward and help others discover adventure, freedom, and simplicity, through tiny house living, together in a community. Our motto is, “Shrink your house, not your dreams.”
Trading Stress for Simplicity!
Live MORE by owning LESS! Less stuff equates less stress, plain and simple. We had no idea how heavy the burden of financial debt was until it was gone. Being debt free and mortgage free cannot be underestimated or understood until one experiences it! To kiss our debt good-bye after 23 years of marriage, is priceless! The weight of all our possessions was keeping us from a life of true freedom. Instead of spending 3 ½ hours cleaning, we are done in 30 minutes. We don’t have to maintain a big yard, clean the pool, or fix things around the house. We have claimed back our weekends for hobbies, fun, and family adventures!
Total Wellness
As a wellness lifestyle coach for 17 years, I have helped hundreds of clients improve their physical, environmental, financial, and personal health and wellness. My passion to achieve total wellness was a perfect fit to embrace minimalism and tiny living. I’ve already shared some of the benefits for financial and personal health and wellness. Now I will share my experience regarding mental and environmental health.
Mental Health
Clutter in my physical environment created chaos in my mental state. A lifestyle of minimalism, began to replace the stress and anxiety with more clarity and focus, resulting in more peace. Having a place for everything and everything in its place, simply helps you function at your best. We have found so much joy in living with less. We don’t collect things that don’t add value to our lives.
When I was downsizing, instead of asking, “What can I live without?”, I began to ask, “Do I need this to live?”. The mindset of simplicity transformed our shopping habits and carried over into every area of our lives, including how we operate our companies.
Environmental Health
What else has an 86% positive effect and can reduce your carbon footprint by 45%??
In an unprecedented study, PhD student Maria Saxton looked at 80 people who downsized to tiny homes to quantify whether their environmental footprints really got smaller.
“As a whole, I found that after downsizing, people were more likely to eat less energy-intensive food products and adopt more environmentally conscious eating habits, such as eating more locally and growing more of their own food. Participants traveled less by car, motorcycle, bus, train, and airplane, and drove more fuel-efficient cars than they did before downsizing. They also purchased substantially fewer items, recycled more plastic and paper, and generated less trash. In sum, I found that downsizing was an important step toward reducing ecological footprints and encouraging pro-environmental behaviors.”
my credentials, selah oasis…
Relationships, debt-free living, travel more, more time for hobbies and fun
office? We needed more space so adding an office was a game changer. relationships-social affects emotional
common themes we hear from our clients…
When we asked the Moss Family why they want to go tiny, they said, “We are tired of working all our weekends to take care of a big house. We our weekends to be spent having fun and making memories with the kids!”
The Rosa family said, “We want to stop collecting and hoarding stuff! If we have the space, we will undoubtedly fill it!”
The Johnson family said, “Our kids are only with us a few short years and we don’t want to live with regrets!” The Kemp family said, “We are tired of watching most of our paycheck go to pay the mortgage and not much left for the fun things in life, like travel and leisure.”
The Benson family said, “We only use about 400 square feet in our home anyways, the other 800 square feet just costs us time and money to maintain.”
met wonderful people, served clients…
Old version:
“Trading Space for Freedom, Simplicity, and Adventure”
Two years ago, we downsized from the 2200 square foot dream home we had just remodeled to be our forever home, to embrace minimalism, living in the 384 square foot tiny home we built to become debt free. We really had no idea the benefits we would enjoy or the challenges we would overcome.
It’s almost like we woke up one day, realized our two oldest kids had moved out and our youngest was 11, and we looked at each other and said, “Honey, let’s shrink the house!” The four bedroom, two car garage, half acre yard and in ground pool, were too much for the three of us. We understood how little time we had with our youngest child and wanted to make the most of it! We were tired of collecting 2 toasters, 3 basketballs and all kinds of miscellaneous stuff that filled empty space and cluttered our hearts and minds.
Our motto has been, “Life is short. You only live once so why not go on an adventure?” When I asked my husband about moving our family from Michigan to Texas, he came to me after thinking a long time about it and said, “Okay, baby, I’m up for any adventure with you!”
There was MORE that we wanted out of life than chasing a mortgage while life passes by and you’re left with regrets. Our motto is: Life is short; you only live once; why not chase an adventure instead of comfort? Who cares if I don’t own 2 toasters, 3 basketballs, and a 4 bedroom/2 bath house with an in ground pool? All that stuff was bogging us down like a weight on our shoulders. Until it was removed, we didn’t know how heavy it was and how much it was keeping us from a life of true freedom. Andrew and I had to spend about 3.5 hours to clean the house top to bottom for each showing while it was on the market for 7 months. In the tiny house, we are done in 30 minutes flat and have so much more time for things that really matter. We have more time and money to invest into our Tiny House business helping people design and build their own dream tiny homes. We believe our mission will strengthen family relationships and eliminate debt so they too can follow their passions and experience more freedom. This was a reason worthy of giving up our comfortable lifestyle.
Upsize your life ~ Downsize your space
The downsizing adventure
not “What can I live without?” but “What do I need to live?”
a common theme we hear from our clients is…
B. MORE TIME: Time Freedom – think of all the time you’ll save because you’ve downsized the space you have to clean, repair, and maintain. We didn’t want to keep chasing a mortgage while life passes by and experience the pain of more regrets. Having two children leave the nest and a 12 year old still at home, we understand we can never get these days back.
CLAIM BACK YOUR WEEKENDS FOR FUN! What if you could clean your entire house in 30 minutes flat? How much more time would you have for the fun things you want to do with your loved ones? Nikki’s story…
Career Freedom – you no longer have to slave away at a job that you hate because you have high living costs.
2. Trade your Stress for more Simplicity Live MORE by owning LESS! hoarding
A. Mental health
a. Clarity and Focus replace confusion and scattered
b. less stuff = Less stress, plain and simple.
c. The mindset of simplicity transforms shopping habits, and carries over into your business and entrepreneur habits,
peace
relationships-social affects emotional
It’s so freeing to rid yourself of all the “stuff” that stole your time and money and added no value to the quality of your life. Relationships, debt-free living, travel more, more time for hobbies and fun! Life is too short to put off doing what makes you feel alive!”
WHY GO TINY: NOT HOARD!! Why go tiny? To stop collecting stuff and start collecting memories. If we have the space, we will undoubtedly fill it.
B. environmental health
WELLNESS:
What else has an 86% positive affect and can reduce your carbon footprint by 45%??
“People choose to downsize to tiny homes for many reasons. They may include living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, simplifying their lives and possessions, becoming more mobile, or achieving financial freedom, since tiny homes typically cost significantly less than the average American home.”
3. Trade unwanted Stuff for more Adventure
collect memories, not stuff!
Travel – with lower living costs comes more savings. Savings you can use to finally take that European adventure you’ve been dreaming of.
Shari Snyder along with her husband, Todd, and teenage son, Andrew, is a tiny house dweller, designer, and builder. She is passionate about creating environmentally conscience tiny house communities that families will thrive in for years to come. As a wellness lifestyle coach of 17 years, her focus is on total wellness; body, soul, and spirit. Shari is the Chief Hope Giver for Hill Country Tiny Houses and Tiny Town Texas with a mission to help people downsize their space to enjoy more freedom, simplicity, and adventure.
WHAT’S NEXT for the Snyder Family?
After downsizing from the large 4 bedrooms, a 2 car garage, and in-ground pool home, to live in the 390 square feet they built on HGTV, their passion is to educate the world on this high-quality, low-impact lifestyle inside Tiny Town Texas, more than a place to be, a place to belong. Follow their journey as they design and develop beautiful, inspiring tiny home communities across the nation.
Visit blog at www.hillcountrytinyhouses.com/blog
Did you know here at Hill Country Tiny Houses, we offer a FREE 30 minute phone consultation to discuss your burning questions about going tiny. We answer your financing questions, legal placement of a tiny house questions, design questions, builders questions, you name it, we serve you for 30 minutes for FREE!
To maximize your call, write your questions out ahead of time. Feel free to email them to us as well. If you’re far enough along, make a wish list and a must have list for your build and email that to us as well.
WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP?
If you don’t want one of our current floor plans/models, We also offer custom builds based on your specific needs and wants. We do charge for this service, but you receive a refund when you place an order.
Are you ready to start designing the tiny home of your dreams? Well, we’re here to help you embrace adventure and enjoy the many advantages of tiny living. For $1500, we can help you design the tiny home you’ve been dreaming of! Or choose one of deigns and save money. We design each home with you in mind-custom built to fit your needs and desires. You will own the prints and can do what you want with them. This cost will also be taken off the total cost of your project when you place an order. Please email us your must have and wish list before the call.
CONTACT US
Please use following link to schedule your free tiny House consult.
https://hillcountrytinyhousesscheduling.as.me/schedule.php
or text Phone: 830-285-5909 Email: shari@hillcountrytinyhouses.com
We can’t wait to hear from you on how we can help make your dream tiny home become a reality!
