Rothesay — Local mom Deborah Doherty, who lives in a posh six-bedroom mansion in Rothesay, maintains that the tiny-home trend is “just sweet,” and living in one would be “a neat experience.”
“She’s kind of the last holdout with that whole tiny-house trend,” said Kyle, Doherty’s 18-year-old son. “It was popular for a while to hypothesize what life might be like in a tiny home, and to tell everyone you’d like to try it, but the fad has come and gone and Mom’s still talking about it. She posts articles on Facebook about it every second day at least.”
“I just think it would be neat,” Deborah confirmed. “I’ve seen pictures and videos and those little houses really have everything you’d need to have a nice, simple life! I figured out how much it would cost to have one built, and it’s actually quite affordable, all things considered.”
Deborah’s 21-year-old daughter, Isabelle, goes to university in Fredericton.
“It’s pretty frustrating when Mom starts going on about tiny houses, because I live in a cramped dorm-room and it’s not at all glamorous,” said Isabelle, rolling her eyes. “She told me my mini-fridge is ‘adorable’ and the single foot of space between my and my roommate’s bed is ‘just so cool,’ but she has no idea what it’s like to try to share what basically amounts to a closet with another human being, sleeping, eating, and working here. It sucks. It’s not romantic.”
Deborah’s husband long ago stopped humouring his wife when she talked about her tiny-home fantasy.
“The woman owns 56 pairs of shoes! She has an entire room she just uses for sewing projects! She has two laundry rooms!” exclaimed Harry Doherty. “She has her own bathroom that’s just jam-packed full of useless stuff. She complains if someone else is in the kitchen when she’s trying to cook, so I installed an island to make more counter-space.
“But she still thinks she could live in one of those godforsaken outhouses on wheels. She must have seen it on Oprah.”