2. About Us

About Us

The Hearthside Homes Difference

Celebrating 37 Years of Excellence in Hill Country Home Building

37 Years in Business, From Father to Son

Obsessing about the details for two generations

 

Hearthside Homes, Inc. is a family owned and operated builder of luxury custom homes in the Texas Hill Country. The company was founded in 1987 by Skip Schimpff, a San Antonio native who today has over 50 years of home building experience to his name.

Day-to-day operation of the company has since passed to Skip’s son, Carter, who began working for Hearthside Homes “from the bottom up” when he was 8 years old - doing the jobs nobody else wanted to do, like cleaning trash, hauling rubble, and endless hours of sweeping.

Over the last three decades, Hearthside Homes has earned a quiet reputation as a company that builds a timeless, “done right” home, with outstanding communication and an emphasis on value. Some of the many Central Texas communities we serve include Canyon Lake, New Braunfels, Boerne, Startzville, Spring Branch, Ensenada Shores, River Chase, and more.

Our focus today, as it was back in ‘87, is quality over quantity. We build between 15 and 20 homes per year, which allows the entire team to be intimately involved in every single stage of every single home’s construction.

Unlike many other custom home builders in the Hill Country, it isn’t unusual at all to find Carter out at one of the homes under construction, obsessing over small details and - yes - even cleaning.

Our team boasts over 140 combined years of home building experience, and the majority of our trades have been with us for 10 years or more because we focus on finding and keeping the very best subcontractors - not the very cheapest.

Every member of the Hearthside Homes team wakes every morning with genuine excitement and enthusiasm about building dream homes for families in the Texas Hill Country. We sincerely hope we’ll have the opportunity to build yours, too.

Skip SchimpffFounder

Carter SchimpffBuilder / General Manager

Details Make the Difference

What makes Hearthside Homes tick?

 

Longevity

It’s 3 A.M. - do you know where your home builder is?

In 36 years, Hearthside Homes has built hundreds of homes. We built through the S&L crisis in the 80’s. We built through the burst of the dot-com bubble. We even built through the Great Recession.

Think of the peace of mind you’ll have by knowing that your builder has “been there” and will continue to be there.

Full Service

Many custom home builders don’t come to the party until it’s time to bid on your plans. Hearthside Homes starts working with you right from the start, providing the expertise you need to help get the best bang for your buck.

Our unique ability to design a home from the ground up that’ll fit both your lifestyle needs and your budget seamlessly eliminates weeks of the usual “back and forth” when working with a separate architect, interior designer, and builder.

Experience

140 years is a long time to do anything. 14 decades. 7 score, if you’re ol’ Honest Abe.

Our team’s combined 140+ years of experience in fine home building gives you the confidence of knowing that the people in charge of building one of the largest investments you’ll ever make - your Hill Country dream home - really know what they’re doing.

Ethos

“Build it right” is a way of life around here.

While it’s common to see many custom home builders cut corners in a “race to the bottom” to win new projects, that’s something you’ll never find at Hearthside Homes.

We work hand-in-hand with you to get you the very best value for your hard earned money, but never at the expense of ensuring that your new custom home is built the right way.

Transparency

No more sleepless nights wondering about progress or feeling “in the dark” about your investment.

Trust is the cornerstone of any successful custom home project, and our commitment to clear communication sets us apart. Your dedicated Hearthside Homes Relationship Concierge hosts weekly status update meetings, and if you have a question in the meantime we guarantee a 24-hour-or-less response time.

Plus, you’re able to get up-to-the-minute status updates through our Portal, 24/7.

Consideration

Experience the difference that genuine consideration and dedication to quality can make in your custom home journey.

With Hearthside Homes, you’re not just another project on an assembly line. That’s why we intentionally limit the number of projects we take on each year. Unlike builders who prioritize volume and hire inexperienced staff to meet demand, we hand-pick our team members with care.

This means every home we build receives the benefit of the experience of every member of the Hearthside Homes expert team.

People Make the Difference

Meet the faces behind our commitment to excellence

Get to know the heart and soul behind Hearthside Homes. Our experienced professionals are passionate about turning your custom home dreams into reality.

Learn more about the talented individuals who will guide you through every step of your Hill Country dream home journey.

Meet the Team

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is a piece of string? It depends.

There are many custom home builders who specialize in "tear down" projects, and many more who don't but will try to do the job anyway. We don't specialize in "tear down" projects and, if we can't do it right, we're not going to do it at all.

In short, if you need to demolish your existing home first — that's something we can't help you with.

Price per square foot is highly variable depending on a number of complex factors including, to name a few, the overall size of your project, the interior and exterior selections you make, and the topography of your land. Any builder who quotes a price per square foot without first establishing finalized plans and selections is simply guessing in order to try and win your business — and that's simply not how we operate.

Our Concept Design Phase and Pre-Construction Phase combined take an average of 2 months from our first meeting to contract signing. This is, however, very dependent on how responsive and decisive you are in finalizing the design of the home and making your selections.

Our typical custom home build takes approximately 6 months from groundbreaking to move-in.

Yes! However, we will need to review the plan first to determine the completeness of the drawings and ensure that the final working set of plans will actually "build" (you'd be shocked at how often we see plans from "Architects" that are missing critical details or simply can't be built as drawn in "the real world").

Yes, however this is a service we offer only to our existing homeowners only in order to maintain our focus on our core competency of building fine luxury homes.

We do not offer any remodeling services.

Hearthside Homes offers "1-2-10 Year Limited Warranty," while the requirement in the State of Texas is only a "1-2-6 Year Limited Warranty". This means that for the first year of of ownership, we warrant that any items which fail, degrade, or otherwise fall outside our established performance standards will be repaired or replaced to like-new condition. Through the second year of ownership, all of your "mechanical" items are covered, to include things like plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. Finally, the structure of your home (framing, foundation, etc.) are covered through ten years of ownership.

Our Guarantees to You

A promise made is a promise kept

 

Communication Guarantee We specialize in fine home building, not optical illusions. No disappearing acts here. You have 24/7 access to your project portal and we guarantee a returned call within 24 hours (assuming we don’t answer on the first ring like usual.)

Price Guarantee We build solely based on fixed price contracts. Once we give you a final contract price, that’s the price. No “allowances,” no “escalation clauses”.

Move-In Guarantee When we give you a move-in date, we mean it. We back that up with our move-in guarantee: in the unlikely event we miss your move-in date, we pay you $500 for every day we’re late.

Quality Guarantee We guarantee you a high-quality finished home built the right way, not the cheap way.