SOLVED. Adult Nonfiction. Narrator and his wife bought a house and are remodeling it. When he's pulling up the (bathroom?) floor, he finds a lot of cash. Read approx 2010. [s]

[Daisy]

I believe the whole book was about the process of the house renovation, but I only really remember the one scene: he was pulling up some flooring, perhaps in the bathroom, and came across a stash of money. It was so old that it was a different size than our current (American) bills, so he had a difficult time getting a bank to accept it. I believe he also briefly wrestled with the idea of returning the money to the family that used to own the house, but decided against it pretty quickly.

I have a vague idea that the house was very old and very large, but I could be mixing up two different books.

I read it in about 2010, but really it could've been anywhere from 2002 to 2014.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Something by David Owen? He has several books about renovating his big old house:

Sheetrock & Shellac: A Thinking Person's Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement

The Walls Around Us: The Thinking Person's Guide to How a House Works

Around the House : Reflections on Life Under a Roof

[Daisy]

Good idea! Unfortunately I can rule him out, as a search for "owen" in my Huge Spreadsheet of Books Read Since 2002 doesn't return anything by him.

It has just occurred to me I can search there for "house," though, and see if that turns up anything relevant.

[Daisy]

Found it! All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House. Thanks, Lobstergirl.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

No problem.