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Sugarhouse: Turning the Neighborhood Crack House into Our Home Sweet Home – A Funny and Heartfelt Memoir of Marriage and Restoration
An improbably funny account of how the purchase and restoration of a disaster of a fixer-upper saves a young marriage
When a season of ludicrous loss tests the mettle of their marriage, Matthew Batt and his wife decide not to call it quits. They set their sights instead on the purchase of a dilapidated house in the Sugarhouse section of Salt Lake City. With no homesteading experience and a full-blown quarter-life crisis on their hands, these perpetual grad students/waiters/nonprofiteers decide to seek salvation through renovation, and do all they can to turn a former crack house into a home. Dizzy with despair, doubt, and the side effects of using the rough equivalent of napalm to detoxify their house, they enter into full-fledged adulthood with power tools in hand.
Heartfelt and joyous, Sugarhouse is the story of how one couple conquers adversity and creates an addition to their family, as well as their home.
When a season of ludicrous loss tests the mettle of their marriage, Matthew Batt and his wife decide not to call it quits. They set their sights instead on the purchase of a dilapidated house in the Sugarhouse section of Salt Lake City. With no homesteading experience and a full-blown quarter-life crisis on their hands, these perpetual grad students/waiters/nonprofiteers decide to seek salvation through renovation, and do all they can to turn a former crack house into a home. Dizzy with despair, doubt, and the side effects of using the rough equivalent of napalm to detoxify their house, they enter into full-fledged adulthood with power tools in hand.
Heartfelt and joyous, Sugarhouse is the story of how one couple conquers adversity and creates an addition to their family, as well as their home.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
May 22, 2012
I want to start out by saying that I enjoyed this book and found the writing engaging and funny. That said, I also have to mention the book wasn’t what I expected, and didn’t come as advertised. The pitch copy describes the book as “An improbably funny account of how the purchase and restoration of a disaster of a fixer-upper saves a young marriage.” Problem is, only about a third of the book actually describes the renovation of the house, the marriage was never in any kind of trouble and didn’t needed saving, the wife wasn’t in the book nearly enough, and I didn’t believe the house was a former crack house (maybe that was just the author’s assumption). On the plus side, the author, Matthew Batt, has a self-deprecating sense of humor, as he pokes fun of the fact that though he is extremely well-educated and book smart, he is lost when it comes to power tools and do-it-yourself projects.
The first part of the book chronicles how the young couple met in Boston, and the jobs they worked and moves they made until they found themselves in Salt Lake City looking to purchase a house. But the focus of this memoir is more on the relationship of the author with his family, and the exploits of his elderly grandfather. The grandfather (Bob) is the biggest character in this book after the author himself. Not only does he help Mr. Batt and his wife financially so they can buy the house but, after the death of the grandmother, Bob takes up with a much younger gold digger whom Mr. Batt and his mother can’t stand. The whole family--who are still grieving for the grandmother--now have to deal with trying to prevent the grandfather from getting fleeced, or doing something foolish. I found all of this very interesting and well-written, and the author to be very honest and revealing in his description of the situation.
The details of the renovation seemed to peter out a bit, and before you know it three years had passed and the couple was looking to sell the house and move on to the next job opportunity. I never felt like I got to see the house in its finished state. What other work went into the renovation? Mostly we heard about the floors and the kitchen countertop. Also, so much was made about the awful smell of the interior that I was waiting for the big payoff, resolution, or discovery of the cause of the smell. Instead it was just sort of gone. My guess is the smell was in the old carpeting, and once that was removed, so was the smell.
I think the author tried to cover too many bases with this book. Really it’s two separate books; 1) a family memoir, and 2) a house renovation memoir. As is, we never get enough of either one. I wonder if the title of the book and the sell copy was the decision of the publisher, and if the manuscript that was turned in by the author was longer, and intended to focus more on the family dynamics, with the search for and restoration of a house just part of the couple’s journey? With the marketing so strongly pushing the crack house restoration angle, readers who are expecting a whole book of the frustrations of home repair may be disappointed.
3.5 stars
The first part of the book chronicles how the young couple met in Boston, and the jobs they worked and moves they made until they found themselves in Salt Lake City looking to purchase a house. But the focus of this memoir is more on the relationship of the author with his family, and the exploits of his elderly grandfather. The grandfather (Bob) is the biggest character in this book after the author himself. Not only does he help Mr. Batt and his wife financially so they can buy the house but, after the death of the grandmother, Bob takes up with a much younger gold digger whom Mr. Batt and his mother can’t stand. The whole family--who are still grieving for the grandmother--now have to deal with trying to prevent the grandfather from getting fleeced, or doing something foolish. I found all of this very interesting and well-written, and the author to be very honest and revealing in his description of the situation.
The details of the renovation seemed to peter out a bit, and before you know it three years had passed and the couple was looking to sell the house and move on to the next job opportunity. I never felt like I got to see the house in its finished state. What other work went into the renovation? Mostly we heard about the floors and the kitchen countertop. Also, so much was made about the awful smell of the interior that I was waiting for the big payoff, resolution, or discovery of the cause of the smell. Instead it was just sort of gone. My guess is the smell was in the old carpeting, and once that was removed, so was the smell.
I think the author tried to cover too many bases with this book. Really it’s two separate books; 1) a family memoir, and 2) a house renovation memoir. As is, we never get enough of either one. I wonder if the title of the book and the sell copy was the decision of the publisher, and if the manuscript that was turned in by the author was longer, and intended to focus more on the family dynamics, with the search for and restoration of a house just part of the couple’s journey? With the marketing so strongly pushing the crack house restoration angle, readers who are expecting a whole book of the frustrations of home repair may be disappointed.
3.5 stars
April 14, 2012
I'm biased - ENJOY!!!
January 23, 2023
3.5 stars
Matthew Batt and his wife Jenae are in Salt Lake City and looking to buy a home. Unfortunately, they can’t afford what they really want, so they end up with a (huge!) fixer-upper. It is only after they are renovating they find out that the house used to be a crackhouse. Oh, and they aren’t particularly handy people, but do the bulk of the work themselves.
Interspersed with their house dilemmas, Matt’s grandmother passes away, so Matt and his mom have to help out Matt’s grandfather, a playboy who really just wants to be with Tonya, the home care nurse who took care of his wife when she was alive.
It maybe doesn’t sound like the more interesting part of the story, but I liked the renovating of the house portions of the story better. I’m actually not quite sure how the two stories fit together, except I suppose that the things that happened with Matt’s family really were happening at the time. There were plenty of humourous bits, maybe more humourous because super-non-handy me could relate. I’m sure they managed to do a heck of a lot more than I ever could have, even with help from friends! Overall, I liked it.
Matthew Batt and his wife Jenae are in Salt Lake City and looking to buy a home. Unfortunately, they can’t afford what they really want, so they end up with a (huge!) fixer-upper. It is only after they are renovating they find out that the house used to be a crackhouse. Oh, and they aren’t particularly handy people, but do the bulk of the work themselves.
Interspersed with their house dilemmas, Matt’s grandmother passes away, so Matt and his mom have to help out Matt’s grandfather, a playboy who really just wants to be with Tonya, the home care nurse who took care of his wife when she was alive.
It maybe doesn’t sound like the more interesting part of the story, but I liked the renovating of the house portions of the story better. I’m actually not quite sure how the two stories fit together, except I suppose that the things that happened with Matt’s family really were happening at the time. There were plenty of humourous bits, maybe more humourous because super-non-handy me could relate. I’m sure they managed to do a heck of a lot more than I ever could have, even with help from friends! Overall, I liked it.
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March 31, 2019Thank goodness I finished. This book took me way too long to read!
January 16, 2014
I was intrigued by the subtitle of this book when I saw it at the library--"turning the neighborhood crack house into our home sweet home." I'm a sucker for home renovation memoirs, perhaps because owning two very different homes has taught my husband and I that we are not patient enough to buy and renovate a fixer-upper, no matter how much we love its character and potential. The book itself focuses only partially on renovation, and partially on the author's relationships with his family; namely, his mother and his difficult grandfather. Although it wasn't what I expected, I didn't mind. In fact, the family memoir portions were perhaps the stronger parts--Batt writes about his family with affection but also with raw honesty.
My main problem with the book was that the more I read, the more I found myself disliking the author as he portrayed himself. During the events discussed in the memoir, he is a Ph.D. student in English. I teach at a small college, and so I know of academic types. I know we can be somewhat insulated, especially during the Ph.D process, and sometimes quirky. However, we are still normal people, with skills and flaws, and the folks I work with all recognize that folks who take other paths in their careers/jobs/life are not so different at their core. Batt, however, tends to be quite dismissive of the workers who come to work on his home--the ones who are there because, of course, they have a skill set that he does not (and there is nothing wrong with that!). He comes across as trying to overcompensate due to feeling like he doesn't meet some self-conceived notion of "masculinity," and it turns out as if he looks like the stereotypical condescending academic. For example, he spends one passage describing what "real men" do--what kind of breakfast they eat, what kind of vehicle they drive--and of course, he buys into all the stereotypes. This particular passage ends with a reflection of how, at a former school, a friend would taunt him when he couldn't roll his own cigarette correctly with the oh-so-charming phrase, "Pussy hurt?" He then goes on at length to explain(?) the caste difference between plumbers and "lesser" professionals, like drywallers. It came across as very strange and a little like a kid in high school desperately trying to fit in with the popular kids by talking tough.
Luckily, these scenes are only one part of the memoir, which was a quick read, and did keep me interested. And they really did end up doing many difficult jobs on their own, which was interesting and impressive to read about. I just wish the author would have approached the foibles of home renovation with a bit more humor, and a bit less defensiveness.
My main problem with the book was that the more I read, the more I found myself disliking the author as he portrayed himself. During the events discussed in the memoir, he is a Ph.D. student in English. I teach at a small college, and so I know of academic types. I know we can be somewhat insulated, especially during the Ph.D process, and sometimes quirky. However, we are still normal people, with skills and flaws, and the folks I work with all recognize that folks who take other paths in their careers/jobs/life are not so different at their core. Batt, however, tends to be quite dismissive of the workers who come to work on his home--the ones who are there because, of course, they have a skill set that he does not (and there is nothing wrong with that!). He comes across as trying to overcompensate due to feeling like he doesn't meet some self-conceived notion of "masculinity," and it turns out as if he looks like the stereotypical condescending academic. For example, he spends one passage describing what "real men" do--what kind of breakfast they eat, what kind of vehicle they drive--and of course, he buys into all the stereotypes. This particular passage ends with a reflection of how, at a former school, a friend would taunt him when he couldn't roll his own cigarette correctly with the oh-so-charming phrase, "Pussy hurt?" He then goes on at length to explain(?) the caste difference between plumbers and "lesser" professionals, like drywallers. It came across as very strange and a little like a kid in high school desperately trying to fit in with the popular kids by talking tough.
Luckily, these scenes are only one part of the memoir, which was a quick read, and did keep me interested. And they really did end up doing many difficult jobs on their own, which was interesting and impressive to read about. I just wish the author would have approached the foibles of home renovation with a bit more humor, and a bit less defensiveness.
November 3, 2014
'Sugar House' by Matthew Batt is the true life tale of a couple buying a former crack house In Salt Lake City and renovating it. The couple, Matt and Jenae had no previous experience in home ownership and none in fixing one up. I must say that I was a smidge disappointed that none of the crack customers showed up for a buy. But that aside, there were several times that I could do nothing but laugh out loud at their experiences.
This book begins with a description of what it is like for a non-Mormon to live in Salt Lake City. I did learn a lot, I had no idea that there were that many differences in the culture. Also, I surprised that Salt Lake City is so hot in the summer.
The author was in graduate school and his wife already had a job there. It is a big step from apartment living to home ownership and they had decided that now is the time. This is not just a story of house hunting and later renovation but also of family problems and quirky relatives. Of all the characters, I loved Jenae the most and was amazed at her patience especially when it came to her grandfather's antics.
What I didn't like was the detailed description of buying, cutting and laying the slate floors. I would recommend this book to anyone planning on that project though. I must say that my husband and I have had the experience to fixing up two houses. We would have never bought a house that smelled of cat urine because we had a sneaking idea of the work involved in getting rid of smell. There were some surprising experiences connected with that. Reading that makes me very glad that we that had decided not to buy a "smoky" house" that was so beautiful but stunk.
What I loved the most about this book was the different characters like the cheap and not too bright about repairs, seller Dennis, the realtor who fell into different accents as he talked, the gallivanting widowed grandfather. The book shines with the building of characters and the relationship between Matt, his wife and their relatives. I did not get bored but there were a few times that I thought to myself, "yes, I know, been there and done that".
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in buying and renovating a house.
I received this book as my choice from the Amazon Vine Program and that in no way influenced my review.
This book begins with a description of what it is like for a non-Mormon to live in Salt Lake City. I did learn a lot, I had no idea that there were that many differences in the culture. Also, I surprised that Salt Lake City is so hot in the summer.
The author was in graduate school and his wife already had a job there. It is a big step from apartment living to home ownership and they had decided that now is the time. This is not just a story of house hunting and later renovation but also of family problems and quirky relatives. Of all the characters, I loved Jenae the most and was amazed at her patience especially when it came to her grandfather's antics.
What I didn't like was the detailed description of buying, cutting and laying the slate floors. I would recommend this book to anyone planning on that project though. I must say that my husband and I have had the experience to fixing up two houses. We would have never bought a house that smelled of cat urine because we had a sneaking idea of the work involved in getting rid of smell. There were some surprising experiences connected with that. Reading that makes me very glad that we that had decided not to buy a "smoky" house" that was so beautiful but stunk.
What I loved the most about this book was the different characters like the cheap and not too bright about repairs, seller Dennis, the realtor who fell into different accents as he talked, the gallivanting widowed grandfather. The book shines with the building of characters and the relationship between Matt, his wife and their relatives. I did not get bored but there were a few times that I thought to myself, "yes, I know, been there and done that".
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in buying and renovating a house.
I received this book as my choice from the Amazon Vine Program and that in no way influenced my review.
March 4, 2013
Sugarhouse is where I live now. We have come to love this quirky little part of Salt Lake City. There are so many things that are laugh out loud funny about Matthew Batt's experience of buying and remodeling his first home. He also writes about what it means to become a homeowner, deal with the loss of loved ones, the challenges of a quarrelsome grandfather, as well as the joy of sharing all of this with someone you love. This book turned out to be about renovating your life as well and coming to terms with what is important in life.
June 24, 2012
Well-written, but much less about the house and homesteading and carpentry and the like and more a family memoir. And, to be honest, I care less about someone's grandparents than I do about how they fix up their place.
September 1, 2012
This is the book I needed for this week. It may be a 3 star, but I was happily engaged and amused, so I give it a 4. Anyone who has ever endured even a bit of discomfort and doubt during remodeling can find something to like in this memoir.
July 3, 2019
Sugarhouse never rises above average novel status. This lackluster judgment was unable to be exceeded thanks to an imbalanced presentation and questionable pacing.
The sharp wit of author Matthew Batt shines through on numerous occasions. He intended this book as a sort of memoir on both he and his wife Jena's efforts to remodel an awful home in Salt Lake City, a situation rife with comedic possibilities. The exploration of these possibilities are somewhat aided by his insightful take on personalities and his talent with awkward, funny dialogue/inner monologues. The descriptions of these are top notch and often laugh-out-loud funny. The author deserves credit for weaving these into Sugarhouse, ensuring most of it remains entertaining and readable.
But Sugarhouse's pacing is extremely uneven, and the concluding portion of the book is weak. It seems to just jump to the ending section, pivoting away from the plot lines most of the book focused on to reach a jerky ending. Some of the side characters come and went fast enough to give readers whiplash, and the writing about in-laws seemed to just scratch the surface of what could have been unveiled. This left the overall work feeling like a disappointment.
I would read another novel by Matthew Batt; this debut contained just enough situational comedy to make this proposition not seem like drudgery. The followup book would, however, be on a short leash. If the book's flow was not improved on and the characters not better fleshed out, that second go-around would be the last.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
The sharp wit of author Matthew Batt shines through on numerous occasions. He intended this book as a sort of memoir on both he and his wife Jena's efforts to remodel an awful home in Salt Lake City, a situation rife with comedic possibilities. The exploration of these possibilities are somewhat aided by his insightful take on personalities and his talent with awkward, funny dialogue/inner monologues. The descriptions of these are top notch and often laugh-out-loud funny. The author deserves credit for weaving these into Sugarhouse, ensuring most of it remains entertaining and readable.
But Sugarhouse's pacing is extremely uneven, and the concluding portion of the book is weak. It seems to just jump to the ending section, pivoting away from the plot lines most of the book focused on to reach a jerky ending. Some of the side characters come and went fast enough to give readers whiplash, and the writing about in-laws seemed to just scratch the surface of what could have been unveiled. This left the overall work feeling like a disappointment.
I would read another novel by Matthew Batt; this debut contained just enough situational comedy to make this proposition not seem like drudgery. The followup book would, however, be on a short leash. If the book's flow was not improved on and the characters not better fleshed out, that second go-around would be the last.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
August 9, 2021
I think we all expected something different here from the book thanks to the misleading blurb. I get its emphasis on the personal family story, which most people (according to their reviews) prefer way less than the renovation part; I mean it's a memoir, sure, I get it. But I still thought the personal family struggles would explore more on the author's marriage to his wife, the dynamic of a newly wed life, that sort of thing. Instead, it goes on and on about the author's grandfather's romantic life after the grandmother passed. The author keeps saying how his family still can't move on from the death of the grandmother after all this time, but never really elaborate on that; there's no explanation on how they grieve or cope with her death or how such a character she was that makes her death so hard to deal with. This makes it difficult to believe that "a season of ludicrous loss" actually "tests" the author's marriage. The wife for some reason is not in the book as frequent as the grandfather, and when she does she's always depicted positively as this reasonable, understanding, loving companion; so there seems to be no reason the marriage needs saving. The restoration of the house, which was promised as the central theme to the book, dwells way too long on the smell and the carpeting of the so-called former crack house.
I guess more drama was what I expected, and its lack thereof makes this book incredibly slow-paced. And though it is somewhat witty, I find a lot of the punchlines not punchy enough.
I guess more drama was what I expected, and its lack thereof makes this book incredibly slow-paced. And though it is somewhat witty, I find a lot of the punchlines not punchy enough.
June 1, 2023
This wasn't funny and also the relationship building through fixing up the house and repairing the marriage isn't really happening either. Their relationship doesn't appear to be in any danger at all and we hardly hear from the wife but there's definitely not relationship repairing happening in this book. I guess the author thinks it is funny that he doesn't know how to fix up a house despite being a fully grown adult, but honestly, most people I know would struggle to know how to do any of the things he describes doing. I just don't get this book.
June 19, 2017
Not as much renovating being written about as the blurb would have you believe. The descriptions of shopping at Home Depot are accurate from my experience, and there was a description of a floor and it's subsequent replacement that made me chuckle. Not quite what I was expecting to read, but I did enjoy it.
October 27, 2017
I think that the current glut of DIY home rehab television takes some of the novelty away from this book. Also, at the risk of sounding snarky, the author probably could have dialed back the huckster schtick. Trying to be as objective as possible, it may be that I just came across Sugarhouse a few years too late. My complaints might just reflect that what was once fresh is now played out.
July 26, 2020
I thought this book was about renovation of a rundown home in a bad neighborhood. However, this book focuses in part on the author's relationships with his family. The writing is witty and has some page-turning aspects. I would have liked more about the house and the neighborhood antics rather than the family issues. 3 Stars
July 9, 2020
Grabbed it from the little library. Sat on the stack until I didn’t have anything to read. Good, quick story. Funny. Heartfelt. Don’t let the bad title throw you off. Had I known the actual storyline I would have picked it up sooner.
October 21, 2019
This was on our bookshelf and I have no idea where it came from. I grabbed it for a beach read and even for that purpose it was meh.
June 8, 2020
About people
Description makes this book seem much more dramatic than it is but I love the writers style and sense of humor
Description makes this book seem much more dramatic than it is but I love the writers style and sense of humor
March 7, 2021
This is a memoir but flows like a good fiction story. The author is writing mostly about the first house he and wife bought in Salt Lake City that needed some TLC. The book was a quick easy read.
Read
July 26, 2021memoir, ok, different voice than I'm used to reading (male?)
September 13, 2024
I finished it. There were cute parts, and the story was good. It was just too drawn out, in my opinion.
November 25, 2024
A laugh out loud read and it didn’t hurt that I’m about the same age as the author so the college-days references were a hoot!
August 20, 2016
Since I live in the Salt Lake area, I was intrigued by the premise of this novel when I saw it at the library, and am also a bit of a sucker for stories about grad students on a bit of a life journey. In this case, it involved a major renovation. In this area, those renovations can involve some major-league fixer-uppers, but worth a pretty penny if done correctly in the area of the valley he's written about. In short, this novel was well worth the time and I will say up front that I really did enjoy it.
As an English major, Matthew Batt knows how to craft language. His writing and observations about minute details in Salt Lake could be biting and funny at the same time. Many of the chapters in his book stood out as individual short stories that I wanted to hang onto. When he talked about searching for the perfect home in the valley, getting help at the local hardware store, or trends in construction he noticed in their home from 50 years ago, his storytelling really was so keen and spot on that I could hardly put the book down. I'm not sure how he managed to make all of that so entertaining, but he really did. I loved the details about ripping up the flooring to find lovely hard wood floors underneath that was riddled with nails from the laminate they had covered it with. A nightmare that anyone who has restored an old home might recognize. It was those details that made the story sing.
One strange part of the story that I didn't connect with was his detour into his grandfather's life. That sounds odd, considering families generally shape a person's life and add interest to a story, however, I kept feeling like it was distracting from the story at hand. I wanted the story to center more on his relationship with his wife and how she factored into this home they were working on. Instead, the grandfather and family outside of Utah kept having this continued impact on the story that turned it into a type of "finding himself" journey that I hadn't expected. Maybe that was the point, that they had been impacting this remodel more than anything else? Since this was a true story, the author's family might have played just as much of a role in this remodel and in his marriage as anything else? I simply felt my own curiosity pulling me back to his home and life he had "built" here in Salt Lake.
The writing in this book was really top notch. Certain sentences caught my attention, and I found myself rereading them, and then marking them so that I could come back to them later on. While I could understand the inclusion of the author's family, I would have liked more about his marriage that was started out in the beginning and in the title. Overall though, a very interesting book with some great writing.
As an English major, Matthew Batt knows how to craft language. His writing and observations about minute details in Salt Lake could be biting and funny at the same time. Many of the chapters in his book stood out as individual short stories that I wanted to hang onto. When he talked about searching for the perfect home in the valley, getting help at the local hardware store, or trends in construction he noticed in their home from 50 years ago, his storytelling really was so keen and spot on that I could hardly put the book down. I'm not sure how he managed to make all of that so entertaining, but he really did. I loved the details about ripping up the flooring to find lovely hard wood floors underneath that was riddled with nails from the laminate they had covered it with. A nightmare that anyone who has restored an old home might recognize. It was those details that made the story sing.
One strange part of the story that I didn't connect with was his detour into his grandfather's life. That sounds odd, considering families generally shape a person's life and add interest to a story, however, I kept feeling like it was distracting from the story at hand. I wanted the story to center more on his relationship with his wife and how she factored into this home they were working on. Instead, the grandfather and family outside of Utah kept having this continued impact on the story that turned it into a type of "finding himself" journey that I hadn't expected. Maybe that was the point, that they had been impacting this remodel more than anything else? Since this was a true story, the author's family might have played just as much of a role in this remodel and in his marriage as anything else? I simply felt my own curiosity pulling me back to his home and life he had "built" here in Salt Lake.
The writing in this book was really top notch. Certain sentences caught my attention, and I found myself rereading them, and then marking them so that I could come back to them later on. While I could understand the inclusion of the author's family, I would have liked more about his marriage that was started out in the beginning and in the title. Overall though, a very interesting book with some great writing.
June 3, 2012
*Check out http://www.infinitereads.com for other reviews and sundry thoughts!*
Having completed the stage of newlywed bliss, Matthew and Jenae Batt begin to discover that what lies on the other side doesn't look promising. Their best friends are divorcing, leaving them worried that a trapdoor might open under their own marriage. Their apartment in Salt Lake City is nice enough, if you ignore the constant accidents at the uncontrolled intersections in front of it; the disemboweled cat corpses that keep turning up; and the fact that Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped a few blocks away. With life looking down when it should be looking up, the couple starts to wonder about their future. Then Matt loses his dad and grandmother in quick succession and, as Jenae stands by him and his family through both losses, he realizes that he still deeply loves her. Determined to do right by her and improve their lives, Matt suggests getting out of their apartment and embarking on the path of homeownership.
After some initial disappointments, Matt finds a likely prospect in the Sugarhouse district of Salt Lake City: a dilapidated former crack house whose owner's attempts at renovation have done more harm than good. Determined to make a renovator's nightmare into the house of their dreams, Matt and Jenae buy the house and hop on the DIY ride of their lives. What follows is an uproarious journey of amateur power-tool operation, stripping floors with the equivalent of stabilized napalm, and developing a man-crush on an "artisan concrete worker."
Along the way, Matt grapples with his dysfunctional family, especially his grandfather. A wealthy and incurable womanizer, Grandpa has coped with his wife's death by openly parading his girlfriends in front of the shocked family, particularly Matt's mother. Readers will laugh and cringe at the elderly man's antics as Matt tries to strike a balance between convincing Grandpa to rein it in and not upsetting their relationship--partly because Grandpa holds the loan on their fixer-upper, but mostly out of love.
Anyone who has tackled home renovation or dysfunctional family blues will chuckle and nod knowingly at Matt's experiences. Everyone else: get out your belt sander, put on an episode of This Old House and prepare to laugh along with this witty, lighthearted memoir.
***This review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness Readers Edition. Sign up for this free and awesome newsletter at http://www.shelf-awareness.com for the latest news and reviews! This review refers to an ARC provided by Shelf Awareness.***
Having completed the stage of newlywed bliss, Matthew and Jenae Batt begin to discover that what lies on the other side doesn't look promising. Their best friends are divorcing, leaving them worried that a trapdoor might open under their own marriage. Their apartment in Salt Lake City is nice enough, if you ignore the constant accidents at the uncontrolled intersections in front of it; the disemboweled cat corpses that keep turning up; and the fact that Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped a few blocks away. With life looking down when it should be looking up, the couple starts to wonder about their future. Then Matt loses his dad and grandmother in quick succession and, as Jenae stands by him and his family through both losses, he realizes that he still deeply loves her. Determined to do right by her and improve their lives, Matt suggests getting out of their apartment and embarking on the path of homeownership.
After some initial disappointments, Matt finds a likely prospect in the Sugarhouse district of Salt Lake City: a dilapidated former crack house whose owner's attempts at renovation have done more harm than good. Determined to make a renovator's nightmare into the house of their dreams, Matt and Jenae buy the house and hop on the DIY ride of their lives. What follows is an uproarious journey of amateur power-tool operation, stripping floors with the equivalent of stabilized napalm, and developing a man-crush on an "artisan concrete worker."
Along the way, Matt grapples with his dysfunctional family, especially his grandfather. A wealthy and incurable womanizer, Grandpa has coped with his wife's death by openly parading his girlfriends in front of the shocked family, particularly Matt's mother. Readers will laugh and cringe at the elderly man's antics as Matt tries to strike a balance between convincing Grandpa to rein it in and not upsetting their relationship--partly because Grandpa holds the loan on their fixer-upper, but mostly out of love.
Anyone who has tackled home renovation or dysfunctional family blues will chuckle and nod knowingly at Matt's experiences. Everyone else: get out your belt sander, put on an episode of This Old House and prepare to laugh along with this witty, lighthearted memoir.
***This review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness Readers Edition. Sign up for this free and awesome newsletter at http://www.shelf-awareness.com for the latest news and reviews! This review refers to an ARC provided by Shelf Awareness.***
September 17, 2012
http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.16/home-...
Sugarhouse: Turning the Neighborhood Crack House into Our Home Sweet Home
Matthew Batt
258 pages, softcover:
$14.95
Mariner, 2012.
Matthew Batt is a perpetual student, earning his Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah while his wife, Jenae, works -- until she finally gets tired of supporting his grad-school habit. "I got home from 'class' one night, four pitchers to the wind, with bits of peanut shell stuck between my teeth, to find Jenae tear-streaked and furious," Batt writes in Sugarhouse, his hilarious memoir of home renovation and family relationships. Batt resolves to change his ways in the wake of a rapid series of deaths in the family, including those of Jenae's grandfather and Batt's grandmother and adoptive father. Jenae and Batt decide that it's time for them to commit to a rooted and grownup life by buying a home of their own: "Everyone but us was dying, getting divorced, or having a kid, and we were stuck with our hands in our pockets waiting for the band to start."
They focus on the Sugarhouse section of Salt Lake City, "one of two viable neighborhoods for liberal types who want to live in Utah but pretend they're still in America." But after years of peripatetic student life, their credit is shot, so they're forced to aim low, settling on a "for sale by owner" house.
The location and price are right, but the ambiance is not. The owner casually dismisses the prior renter: "Neighbors'll tell you she sold the crack cocaine -- the windows was all shut up with foil and cardboard. But don't you listen to that horse hockey." The stench of the house is "something between a derelict litter box, muddy diapers, and a basement backed up with wastewater." Still, they buy it and settle into dogged work, using their limited renovation skills. Meanwhile, Batt frets about his grandfather, who spirals out of control after his wife's death and repeatedly heads to Vegas with a young gold-digger named Tonya.
Although the family's road trips are more fun to read about than they must have been to experience, the renovation and real estate scenes, with their colorful characters, make you wish you could have Batt at your side, cracking jokes, during your next home improvement attempts. Through his many misadventures, Batt discovers "a nebulous world where trying to improve something means implicitly bringing it to the brink of its (or my own) destruction in order to give it a new life."
Sugarhouse: Turning the Neighborhood Crack House into Our Home Sweet Home
Matthew Batt
258 pages, softcover:
$14.95
Mariner, 2012.
Matthew Batt is a perpetual student, earning his Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah while his wife, Jenae, works -- until she finally gets tired of supporting his grad-school habit. "I got home from 'class' one night, four pitchers to the wind, with bits of peanut shell stuck between my teeth, to find Jenae tear-streaked and furious," Batt writes in Sugarhouse, his hilarious memoir of home renovation and family relationships. Batt resolves to change his ways in the wake of a rapid series of deaths in the family, including those of Jenae's grandfather and Batt's grandmother and adoptive father. Jenae and Batt decide that it's time for them to commit to a rooted and grownup life by buying a home of their own: "Everyone but us was dying, getting divorced, or having a kid, and we were stuck with our hands in our pockets waiting for the band to start."
They focus on the Sugarhouse section of Salt Lake City, "one of two viable neighborhoods for liberal types who want to live in Utah but pretend they're still in America." But after years of peripatetic student life, their credit is shot, so they're forced to aim low, settling on a "for sale by owner" house.
The location and price are right, but the ambiance is not. The owner casually dismisses the prior renter: "Neighbors'll tell you she sold the crack cocaine -- the windows was all shut up with foil and cardboard. But don't you listen to that horse hockey." The stench of the house is "something between a derelict litter box, muddy diapers, and a basement backed up with wastewater." Still, they buy it and settle into dogged work, using their limited renovation skills. Meanwhile, Batt frets about his grandfather, who spirals out of control after his wife's death and repeatedly heads to Vegas with a young gold-digger named Tonya.
Although the family's road trips are more fun to read about than they must have been to experience, the renovation and real estate scenes, with their colorful characters, make you wish you could have Batt at your side, cracking jokes, during your next home improvement attempts. Through his many misadventures, Batt discovers "a nebulous world where trying to improve something means implicitly bringing it to the brink of its (or my own) destruction in order to give it a new life."
October 2, 2012
Sugarhouse advertises itself as tale of newbie home renovation to save a marriage. That is not what this book is about. In fact, there are no more than a handful of chapters actually dedicated to the home renovation. In addition, the marriage was never in jeopardy, at least as far as I could tell from what the author gives us in this book. This story is really about loss and coping, both personally and as a family, with the changes that result from unexpected loss, especially when they quickly pile up. It is a nice story, even if it is not what you were promised, and that's why I gave it two stars. But it has a couple weaknesses, which kept me from giving it more than that.
The majority of reviews talk about it being funny, which is something the author is earnestly trying to achieve. And he does, I did crack a smile several times. But then I started to notice that the humor is either self-deprecation or at the expense of other characters (with the exception of his wife and mother, he treats both of them with tremendous respect). The self-deprecation gets old quickly mainly because it's not at all genuine. "I'm such an idiot at this home renovating thing" he says but you soon realize it's because he sees himself as choosing a superior lifestyle. This is made apparent by the fact that the rest of the humor is derived at the expense of others. It's a cheap way to generate a laugh.
Finally, I must explain that I live in Sugarhouse. My husband and I own a home built in 1915, which luckily was renovated before we moved in. I'm familiar enough with the area to be 95% sure I've found the house that inspired this book. I'm also a Mormon. I quickly realized that the author was piling as many Mormon/Utah stereotypes into the book as he could for the sake of a laugh or a more dramatic backdrop. The stereotypes in and of themselves are exaggerated but when you try and apply them to Salt Lake City, they are just down right untrue. I began to realize if this was so distorted for the sake of the story, there were likely many other aspects that had been given the same treatment. When the truth is stripped from the book, it becomes dramatically less appealing.
July 14, 2012
Review: Sugarhouse: Turning the Neighborhood Crack House into Our Home Sweet Home
by Matthew Batt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Mariner Books
Pub Date: June 19, 2012
ISBN: 9780547634531
Homeownership is tough, but renovating a house yourself, especially if you’re one of those wimpy grad student types? That’s just insane. I wouldn’t want to do it, but it’s so much fun to read about!
Matt and his wife, Janae, decide that they need to start doing grown-up things. They’ve bounced from one degree to another, and now they are in Salt Lake City, UT, surrounded by responsibility, domesticity and people who believe caffeine is the devil. Living in an apartment with their dog, Maggie, and cat, Skillet, just doesn’t seem right anymore. Yet another sign they should buy? Matt’s recently widowed grandpa gets sloshed one night and not only tells Matt about a remnant of his midlife crisis (aka Tonya) he has an obsessive relationship with, but also shares that he would love to help Matt and Janae buy their first house. As if Matt needed another sign: he sees a house go on the market it in a nice neighborhood and it’s dirt cheap. Of course, in the land of homeownership, you often get what you pay for and this isn’t one of those exceptions.
Armed with a vision of what the place could look like, advice and flooring installation classes, and a butt-load of beer and pizza, Matt and Janae gut the inside of what used to be the neighborhood crackhouse and turn it into a beautiful home. Along the way, Matt also comes to terms what it means to him to be a good husband, and to take pride in a job well done.
Adventures in home renovation aside, Sugarhouse is also packed with family drama, toilet humor, and (my favorite) an icy pet water rescue--yes, it’s in there.
If you’re thinking of buying your first home, this book might be too scary for you, but for anyone else, I highly recommend it.
June 22, 2017
“Sugarhouse” By Matthew Batt is a wonderfully written, beautifully complex and at the same time perfectly simple book. I really enjoyed reading it, however I would advise anyone who is interested in reading it to be aware that the author does use adult language, including the F word, several times throughout the book. Other than the language, I really enjoyed Batt’s ability to bring scenes to life through his wonderful use of imagery and clever use of dialogue. He not only tells the story, but tells how words were said, how the setting felt, and puts you right in his shoes so that when things go wrong or right, you can’t help but feel the emotions and the weight of the situation yourself. One perfect example of this is when Batt and his wife witness a train hitting a minivan. He leads up to the story perfectly, gives the right imagery so that you can picture the scene, and includes a few key elements to incorporate the right emotion into the story so that the audience is concerned and shocked but not horrified. He includes how a motorcyclist rushed to the scene, as his “helmet spins, empty, on the pavement.” He also includes how he pulled his wife “from where she has slumped against the dashboard and [held] her.” By always including key elements such as this, Batt is able to portray the emotions of shock, sadness, and regret, and lead the audience to the same conclusion that he came to: that life is too short, and we need to take the opportunities we get. His ability to do this and his writing style overall makes this book a wonderful read.
September 14, 2012
More 2.5 for me. I am grading up to the 3 stars.
This review says a lot of what I thought:
my link text
I would have liked to read more about the renovations. Batt was often his funniest in these episodes, but he was almost as often reflective at these times. The end of the 'story' is way too abrupt. So much more could have been written about the house and their experiences with and in it.
I didn't mind the weaving of the family situations with the story of the house - that's real life. Despite the title, there was more about the family than the house. It just never was quite enough of either one. It would have been much more satisfying to feel the overall change in the house from the disaster that it was to the place they called home.
My biggest 'problem' with the book is Batt's utter contempt for Utah and the 'church' and anyone who is a member of that church. You can make fun of things and people in a way that shows that you actually like them or have some grudging respect for them, but it is obvious that the author doesn't have any positive feelings about these things or people at all. I hoped that after living in Utah for awhile and around these people, Batt would soften. He did soften somewhat toward the natural wonders of the state, but never anything else. (I am not a native Utahn.)
I enjoyed the writing in general. The use of vulgarities and the course profanity were too much.
This review says a lot of what I thought:
my link text
I would have liked to read more about the renovations. Batt was often his funniest in these episodes, but he was almost as often reflective at these times. The end of the 'story' is way too abrupt. So much more could have been written about the house and their experiences with and in it.
I didn't mind the weaving of the family situations with the story of the house - that's real life. Despite the title, there was more about the family than the house. It just never was quite enough of either one. It would have been much more satisfying to feel the overall change in the house from the disaster that it was to the place they called home.
My biggest 'problem' with the book is Batt's utter contempt for Utah and the 'church' and anyone who is a member of that church. You can make fun of things and people in a way that shows that you actually like them or have some grudging respect for them, but it is obvious that the author doesn't have any positive feelings about these things or people at all. I hoped that after living in Utah for awhile and around these people, Batt would soften. He did soften somewhat toward the natural wonders of the state, but never anything else. (I am not a native Utahn.)
I enjoyed the writing in general. The use of vulgarities and the course profanity were too much.
October 15, 2012
For some reason, I've been reading a lot of memoir type books that are not about great people's live but, rather, about parts of normal people's lives.
This book is about the part of the author's life from about his undergraduate career in college to about his post doctoral career as a college professor in Minnesota. Most of the action takes place in Salt Lake City in the Sugarhouse district (thus, the title) where he and his wife (a woman he meets, dates and then marries in rapid succession)proceed to buy a decrepit house and fix it up.
Interspersed with the humorous telling of the whole "I have no clue what I'm doing but I'm doing it pretty well." are chapters about his relationship with his family. Not much is said for his wife's side of the family, if there is one.
The writing style is breezy and the book is a quick and easy read. I found myself wondering how such a dunderhead could make it through life waiting on tables, completing a graduate degree, be married and work on a house that was clearly in serious disrepair.
I guess nothing is impossible. Perhaps, this is more of a self help book in disguise. "See, if I can do this, anyone can! Dream the dream and follow it."
The book is pure entertainment. If it weren't about real people and real events, it would make a good novel of the beach reading variety.
This book is about the part of the author's life from about his undergraduate career in college to about his post doctoral career as a college professor in Minnesota. Most of the action takes place in Salt Lake City in the Sugarhouse district (thus, the title) where he and his wife (a woman he meets, dates and then marries in rapid succession)proceed to buy a decrepit house and fix it up.
Interspersed with the humorous telling of the whole "I have no clue what I'm doing but I'm doing it pretty well." are chapters about his relationship with his family. Not much is said for his wife's side of the family, if there is one.
The writing style is breezy and the book is a quick and easy read. I found myself wondering how such a dunderhead could make it through life waiting on tables, completing a graduate degree, be married and work on a house that was clearly in serious disrepair.
I guess nothing is impossible. Perhaps, this is more of a self help book in disguise. "See, if I can do this, anyone can! Dream the dream and follow it."
The book is pure entertainment. If it weren't about real people and real events, it would make a good novel of the beach reading variety.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews