Customer Reviews

Gutted: Down to the Studs in My House, My Marriage, My Entire Life

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I never thought I could get so many laughs while recalling the torture that we went through when we redid our house. I wish we'd read this book before we started -- it might have kept us cracking up in a good way instead of in the losing-our-sanity way. I found this book in a DailyCandy.com email recommending Father's Day gifts, and I think that's probably a great call for dads who read and have a sense of humor. I'm glad to see Amazon likes it so much that it's a Breakout Book of Summer 2004! This is my new gift of choice to fellow readers -- perhaps it'll save some marriages, not to mention some houses!

GUTTED made me laugh out loud. It also brought
tears to my eyes as I followed the unlikely but,
nevertheless, epic journey of Mr. LaRose and his
wife through the figurative and literal pitfalls
of acute home renovation undertaken during the
early years of their marriage. Mr. LaRose has a keen
ear and eye for the ironic and the absurd which serve
him well in this tale of the joys and horrors of home
ownership and of the notable discoveries that this couple
make about each other as they navigate the aisles of Home
Depot. This is an honest, funny, poignant book. I found
myself surprisingly invested in not
only the structural details of the "toenail yellow" house but also rooting for the
survival of the marriage. One can only hope for more from
this gifted author with the challenges of parenthood providing
fresh ground for his astute and quirky observations on life.

Refreshingly conversational and informal, this is the kind of book you can go through in 3 days, the pages turn so quickly. LaRose does a good job of bringing you inside the house, well the shell of it anyway, and seeing both his and his wife's predictable reactions to one frustration after another. The book itself is a great idea; everyone knows someone with these types of horror stories, but this serves a purpose as a warning sign of some of the problems that WILL (not "could", not "might") be involved in home renovation. I highly recommend it for anyone who's thinking of doing anything major to their home and hope to keep to some sort of budget.

This is what I need -- a guy who can make me laugh while he goes to the ends of the earth to figure out how to build me a house! I not only learned a lot about home renovation when I read "Gutted: Down to the Studs in My House, My Marriage, My Entire Life" -- I found it interesting even without having tried any yet. I hear my friends complain incessantly about their home renovation stress and the battles it causes -- this guy finds a way to spell it all out and then put it in perspective. It gives me hope for the friends who can't agree on so much as a doorknob. I already have a list of people in my head to recommend it to -- my boyfriend, dad and mom are #1, #2 and #3 -- and then come my friends...you know who you are! Now I just want to know about the next big step in LaRose's life -- it was hard to let this world go -- what's next?????

what an entertaining ride. this book is full of laughs and insight into the wacky and stressful world of home renovation, marriage and mid-life meltdowns. larose has a wicked sense of humor that makes sedaris seem tame. i loved every page!

I was skeptical about this book, but LaRose proved that a story about renovating an old house and nearly demolishing a new marriage can be hilarious, touching, and educational all at the same time. I have never renovated, nor plan to, but this book was still fun and entertaining. A friend gave it to me as an engagement gift, if you can believe it! I wasn't going to read it, but my fiance kept laughing out loud, so I decided I had to give it a go. Glad I did.

My wife and I were in the process of renovating the 100 year-old fixer-upper that we'd recently purchased. I was looking for a how-to book at my local Border's bookstore and I found this novel shelved with the home-improvement books. I'm not sure if it was a mistake or if there's a marketing genius working at the store, but I snatched this book up instantly.

It was rather surreal to read about LaRose's home-improvement misadventures while sitting in my freshly gutted kitchen, covered in dust, my feet dangling between the rafters where a floor had been hours before. I felt, first-hand, the marital stress he and his wife went through. And his observations on Home Depot, contractors, tools, home-improvement shows, lumber yards, and relatives are uncanny.

This is a wonderful story about a couple who demolish their house, and nearly their relationship, to make everything better and brighter.

LaRose is the underdog we all need more of! Takes a terrible situation and triumphs - and you laugh for the entire ride. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it! The LA Times says he has David Sedaris-type humor. I couldn't agree more. The book is great fun!!!

Firstly, this book was published June 19th. There are 5 (5 star) reviews written prior to the publishing date. Me thinks I smell a fish.

Now for the review: This book is about 70 pages too long. The author could have stopped writing much sooner and the reader would have whole story: The remodeling of a mundane house, by a mundane couple, in the Hamptons. I would have added the words "cash strapped couple" to my description, but somehow they have enough money to pay for an apartment in NYC, the mortgage on a house in the Hamptons, and for one spouse to not work.

There doesn't seem to be any plot other than the day-to-day frustrations of home remodeling. Anyone that has bought a fixer upper knows the story. Those that don't--count yourself lucky!

Don't expect any epiphanies reading this book. You won't learn construction or finance and nothing magical happens to the author. You just read about his frustrations and modest accomplishments.

Take a pass on this one, you won't regret it.

I enjoyed reading Gutted--it made me laugh out loud a number of times, and having survived my own home renovation, I could relate to a lot of what LaRose describes. I also liked how he grew as a carpenter, particularly in taking a job as a carpenter even though he had no experience, and somehow managing not to fall off a ladder and break his neck. I skimmed over the parts where he analyzes his marriage. I just didn't care; it was the house I wanted to read about. Which brings me to my big complaint about this book: there is not one photograph. Not even one measly "before" picture of the exterior. There is a picture of the finished exterior in an old New York Times article, which you can find through an image search, and the house looks lovely. It's difficult to imagine the dump it was in the beginning.