Haha yeah the pictures aren't very descriptive. I wish I'd taken more. The internals are pretty bad, especially the ad-hoc generator and transfer switch. The water main bond was run to a half inch water pipe going up to the bathroom.
And yes, I do understand how it all works. I had to figure it all out to reverse it. He had a lot of old x.10 stuff in there too and literally hundreds of icecube relays all over the house. I'm not discrediting his genious, but damn some of the stuff was pretty unsafe and moreover very confusing to the next homeowner to operate
Here are a few of the code violations I found:
#16 SO cord used as branch wiring, including open splices in a drop ceiling
42-space 200amp main breaker load center (completely full with additional sub-subpanels attached) with a 100a main ahead of it
Fluorescent fixtures in the garage open spliced into SO cord and romex stapled to the ceiling. There were actually burn marks where the wire was run
120VAC /15A outlets labeled (12VDC)
A portable generator completely enclosed in a plastic garden storage box with no exhaust outlet right next to a window
Type NMB cable directly buried approx 6" below grade
A sump pit with a cord cap for the pump open spliced into the UF right in the pit! And no GFCI protection.
Many many light fixtures installed without a box, open splices
Thinwall central vac PCV used as electrical conduit
This is just the tip of the iceburg. After everything was done, we removed 47 unnecessary circuits from the house!