I have not had one person tell me it was the best year of their life, have you?
We are no exception. However, we are incredibly grateful for the hi-lights.

• Of course, filming with the HGTV crew was surreal!  
• Building the Boho in that paradise location was amazing! Many thanks to our friend, John  Gilbert, owner of Red Sands Ranch, for letting us build and film on the Llano River there. You can rent your own piece of heaven at https://www.vrbo.com/423176
• Our 5,000 mile tiny house trip with 5,000 memories this summer for Chicago’s Tiny House show and our vacation with family in Michigan.  (By the way, the best way to visit family is to bring your own house so you have your own space)
• Austin’s Tiny House Jamboree show (it was again surreal to have so many people come tour it who had just watched it on HGTV the week before.  They were all so kind)

Can I be RAW and REAL for a hot minute?  

• Todd and I went through betrayal after betrayal with trusted friends who were a drain to us emotionally, energetically and financially. It felt like some were jealous of our success, trying to destroy our company.  
• We have battled depression and oppression and went quiet the last part of the year.  We both gained some weight and felt some really dark days and sleepless nights from the stress.  We held on to a quote a new friend taught us last summer:  “Trust God for all”. We will protect the reputations of these individuals and we will overcome evil with good. They cannot win!
• Conversely, there were so many people who showed up and showered us with incredible kindness. It’s a long long list and we are so incredibly grateful.
• For every one person (there were five in all) who tried to harm us, God raised up two if not three others to come alongside and help us.
• Every trial was outweighed with a greater blessing

Mailed mystery letters of blessing 

• We have the absolute BEST clients we could imagine and each one keeps us going, to be a small part of making their big dreams come true!

• This January, we have been rebuilding our faith, our confidence, and renewing our vision for 2019.  We chose to give each of these people a Grace Card: a lifetime pass of forgiveness and love no matter what they do in the future and no matter what they have done in the past because WE REFUSE TO GIVE UP OUR POWER!  
• One of the key things we did based on advice from the brilliant Graham Cooke, was to write a letter of blessing to some of the offenders as a prophetic letter from the Lord (this was not in our hand writing and was mailed by a friend mail from a different state).
  In the words of Warren Buffet, “You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic.  True power is restraint.  If words control you that means everyone else can control you.  Breathe and allow things to pass.”

YOU TUBE VIDEO TOUR HAS 150,000 views

In December, our friend, Chris Penn, from Alaska, came to visit and do a video tour of our new tiny house. We met Chris at a Jamboree in 2017 where he did a video tour of our vintage retreat.  He drove his skoolie and we had a great time.  His channel has 250,000 subscribers and our video has 150,000 views the first 3 weeks.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY0rsm56IKo

Tiny Town Texas TV Show Coming Soon

Tiny Town Texas pilot episode to air first week of April.  We will send a teaser the end of March so be watching.  The show airs every other week.  Channel details coming soon.

Building our Tiny Town Team!

We are so excited that our daughter, Christianna, has accepted the position as Digital Marketing Director. She is currently studying business marketing and graphic design and is looking to expand her project portfolio for a fraction of the normal cost. She creates graphics and writes sales copy for emails, blogs and social posts. You can email her at hello@sapphiresocialco.com.

Businesses, like people, must overcome struggles and breakthrough barriers. Hill Country Tiny Houses has recently been in the midst of building a new tiny house and filming an episode of HGTV’s Tiny Paradise.While we are so blessed to be a part of this show and to have our company featured, it came with multiple challenges for our new family owned business. One of the main complications was the quick turn around required.

We applied for the show with clients from Austin with 10 acres on a hill top in December, 2017. We were the builder and they the client. HGTV chose a location in Hawaii over our client. In January, one of their builds fell through and they reached out to us to fill in the gap. The interview went well, but we knew if we took the position, we had 30 days to complete the project. We would be the builder and the client, which added more challenges because all the filming would be on us, no breaks at all, and we had to play both roles simultaneously. Thankfully, we already had ordered our trailer and hired a crew to build the shell off site, but we had to secure a paradise location next. Thanks to our friends, family, and added talent, we pulled it off.

We had to design, furnish, build and film this project in only 30 days; a fraction of the time we would normally allot for such a project. It was difficult to ship the items to our location as it was somewhat remote, in a picturesque Texas town, perfect for filming. That meant it was more difficult to find our packages and make sure that they arrived, however, our wonderful neighbors were very helpful and brought many of them to us. In addition, we lost a truck load of stuff as one of the semis carrying some of our furniture got into an accident on its way to deliver our supplies, delaying the shipment.

Also, because of the time crunch we had to spend a lot of time running to and from different stores trying to pick up all the furnishings and different accent pieces from all over the area, this meant many trips to San Antonio for long-winded shopping trips with our 12-year-old son. He was so gracious about the whole experience and extremely helpful both in the actual build and as a shopping assistant. One of the biggest problems this project created was in regards to our business itself; we spent almost all of our time working on the project which made it difficult to focus on our business. Correspondence with potential customers became difficult, though some of our other staff members were able to pick up the slack. However, our film site was very remote and we didn’t have cell service which meant we had to trust our limited staff to get along without us and to answer any pressing questions that we weren’t able to.

Another issue we faced was having to move our tiny houses to different locations to accommodate filming, we currently live in a tiny house that we built last summer so we had to move to a location closer to the film site as well as move the new build to a more “paradise-like” spot. In addition to that, we will be taking our new tiny house, “The Bohemian Bungalow,” to an expo in Chicago 3 days after we wrap up filming which means that we must make sure it’s extra stable and fit for a cross-country haul. As for the actual filming, it was important to us not to sacrifice anything in design or construction simply because we were on limited time and had to spend extra time making sure every detail was perfect for TV. It was important to us to maintain our company’s integrity and to communicate our story to the audience properly. This meant that we had to be prepared for what we were going to say and know the best way to effectively communicate. Not to mention all the release forms that had to be signed to be on the show, having to put together family outings to be filmed, coordinating help with the build, as well as feeding our film crew.

All this was done while, behind the scenes, we overhauled our brand, restructuring before we’re on TV as well as resuming our marketing content; blogging, social media, etc. We only have a 6-week window from the day we wrap up filming to the day the episode airs to make sure everything is where we want it to be, yet another time crunch. All of these different challenges have made us a stronger company and we’ve learned how to utilize each other’s strengths and to trust in our ability to get it done. We are so thankful for the opportunity to promote our brand on national television as well as share this experience with friends and family.

I was invited to be a guest speaker at the Schaumburg Tiny House Show near Chicago, IL in May, 2018 and again in August, 2018, at The National Tiny House Jamboree in Austin, TX. The topic was, “The Joys of Downsizing” and the following bio outlines some of the talk. I really enjoyed the interaction with the crowds as I saw once again the hunger and craving for a simple life, free from all the clutter in their physical space that clutters their mind, their dreams, their priorities and their entire life.

“Tiny House Dweller, Designer and builder, Shari Snyder and her husband, Todd, built their own Tiny House and downsized from 2200 square feet to 392. They wanted to live debt free and travel while they homeschool their last child. Hill Country Tiny Houses was birthed out of the many requests to share their findings with the world. They are passionate about their work and leaving a legacy by creating a tiny house wellness village in the hill country of Texas.
Shari is a pioneer and advocate for the tiny house movement and will teach on the joys of downsizing whether you ever go tiny or not. 
According to Shari, ‘Downsizing is the art of reducing clutter in your environment to enhance your performance mentally, emotionally and physically.'”

Vintage Retreat

TINY HOUSE, HUGE PASSION

Snyder family trades in dream home to live in tiny home, start family business

Story by Jacob Karre

Photos by William Houghton

The Snyder family moved from their 3,000-square-foot dream home into a 454-square-foot tiny house not only for the sake of experience, but to also start their own tiny house business.

despite the blood, sweat and tears that went into building their “normal-sized” Kerrville home, Shari  and Todd Snyder decided that immersing themselves into the downsized lifestyle was beneficial for their long-term goal.

Their sacrifice on space and material possessions allowed them to start their business, Hill Country Tiny Houses in 2016. A year later, they built the company’s first home – the unit they now live in comfortably.

The couple is all for their business – quite literally, they explained.

With the combined expertise of Shari in interior design and Todd in carpentry, they’ve been able to jump start-start their business – already fully enveloped in their second home.

Shari,Todd and their 12-year-old son, Andrew, live together in the spacious, well-designed tiny house.Shari admitted the move was hard for her and her family, but it was necessary.

“You have to immerse yourself,” Shari said. “You have to live in a tiny house to know what it’s like.”

even though they have only lived in the tiny house for two months, the couple has already seen the reward.

“it allowed us to fund this business, while while also allowing us to talk intelligently about it,” Shari said.

upon entering the home, it is evident a lot of thought went into planning. Not only does the space offer plenty of natural-light, it also has pull-out sections often seen in RVs, a full kitchen with a farm sink, a private master bedroom and full-size bathroom complete with a washer and dryer.

“After a quick tour, guests are often complimenting the Snyders on the home. Even skeptic husbands whose wives made them see the home have been impressed. Guests typically leave with a positive attitude toward the tiny house lifestyle,” Shari said. 

“I think that says a lot. They compliment how much space there is and they don’t feel cramped,” Shari said. everything in the home was designed with spacial awareness – the ultimate goal of a tiny home. As the interior designer, Shari admitted she spent an embarrassingly large amount of time measuring and remeasuring, Burt the end result is a beautiful, well-spaced home that leaves little to be desired.

Todd and his son built the home from the 40-foot trailer up. Everything is placed in a specific location, wether it’s to balance the home or support the weight of the the steel-framed pullouts.

“The hardest part was figuring out those pullouts,”  Todd said.”But for the most part, it’s basic framing.”

Last year, the tiny house was all over the internet after being highlighted in an Arlington exhibit. To give others a taste of what it’s like to live in a tiny house, the couple has opened up their home to guests on the home-sharing site Airbnb.

Ever since they made the jump, the two said they haven’t really missed the extra things they had before.They’ve fully embraced the lifestyle, with has given them a good idea about what to do when designing for clients.

Ultimately, the business allows the Snyders to work together, something they’ve pursued since they got married. All three Snyders children – Andrew and his older sisters, Christianna and Elisabeth, who are now in college – have had a hand in helping their [parents with their business. 

The Snyders don’t want to just build their houses either, they want to open up a tiny house community in the Hill Country. Recently. They toured several tiny house communities in Austin to gather ideas and have talked with Kerrville leader about how to make that dream come to life.

The Snyders want to be on the forefront of the tiny house conversation and open people up to the new American dream through the next generation of homes.

Shari and Todd Snyder and their 12-year-old son, Andrew, have lived in a tiny house for two months while running their business, Hill Country Tiny Houses.