Hello, all. This is my first post, so bear with me and please direct/redirect me as needed. So here is my situation. My wife and I purchased an old victorian rowhouse in Lancaster County, PA (USA) and part of the condition of sale was that all electric would be brought up to code, knob&tube removed, etc. So, we move in to our new (old) home and see all new 3prong outlets everywhere, but we are finding things are not what we were told they would be. The layout of this wiring is a mess, circuit breakers controlling things in areas that just don't make sense at all and a mixture of new Romex properly grounded (but additionally jumped from neutral to ground "bootleg" style) and tons of old two wire cloth wire wired to shiny new 3 prong outlets and made to fool the inspector by way of a "bootleg ground" on all of them that I've had time to investigate. Couple things: 1. Everything I've read/you-tubed on line (often with NEC references) says that "bootleg grounds" are a major NO-NO, and that I would need to replace all, or at least the first in a daisy-chain, with GFCI outlets with no equipment ground, and labeled so. Does this sound correct to you all? Further more, why - on the lines that are new and grounded - would someone connect the bare ground wire to the ground lug on the outlet, and then jump the neutral to the ground lug too??? Also, with the three wire outlets that read a correct ground to the outlet, should the box be grounded too? ...or would that happen by way of screwing the outlet into the metal box? 2. Should I leave 'well enough' alone here, or start replacing outlets and let the stereos, TV's and computeres take a potential hit with the ungrounded GFCI's installed? 3. I discovered all of this "bootleg" stuff from doing some experimenting to see what light fixtures were connected in-line with each other (if at all) in the unfinished bathroom I would like to wire to include a proper GFCI outlet (where currently no outlet exists). What I did discover is that while the two sconces and over head light in the bathroom are on the same 20 amp circuit on a secondary panel on the second floor, these bath lighting fixtures also share that circuit with two "bootleg grounded" outlets, 5 ceiling light/fans and 2 hallway lights, all of which are in other rooms. All of this wiring (as far as I've discovered) on [I]this[/I] circuit uses the old cloth covered two-wire stuff. Now, I understand that it's standard practice to put a bathroom on a dedicated circuit, but given the age and oddity of this 1880's house, I don't see a complete rewiring to be a feasible option at this time or in the foreseeable future. Should I just add on a GFCI outlet to the busy circuit and put it into the bathroom anyway? Without a ground, would the new GFCI in the bathroom do any good in protecting someone with wet hands or feet anyway? What advice would you have me to heed? Many, many, thanks for your patience in reading all of this and any help you may provide. Best, John

I opened up the control panel on my generator today, and noticed the screws worked themselves loose on the Hubbell twist lock receptacles. Is there anything I can do other than soldering them to keep them from vibrating loose?