That sort of reminds me of the latest house I purchased. It's a beautiful Victorian home built in 1910 that has only had 2 owners. The basement is dry, the hard maple floors are beautiful now that I've refinished them and all the baseboard and crown molding is large and beautiful/original. Unfortunately, the owners 'upgraded' the house's electrical, plumbing and NG by themselves. I knew this going in and made my offer for the home accordingly, so I'm not complaining; just laughing at some of the stuff I've found.
For example, the 'ground' from the new breaker panel is grounded to the water pipe. Sounds reasonable, huh? The water pipe is PVC!
They used copper for NG lines (a no go for code) and PVC lines for water look like some sort of maze that you can't get through. At least I can either sell the copper or use it when I re-do all the plumbing. I'm wondering if running NG through them for years has caused them to begin to flake inside (this is supposedly why they are not allowed for carrying NG) and if it would contaminate the water. With scrap as high as it is, I'm leaning towards getting my money for the copper scrap and using PEX for all the pressure side plumbing.
Oh, also in places they used what appears to be 14 gauge extension cord instead of romex for wiring.
I'm running all 12 romex and have to replace all the outlets because the ones there are only 2 plug outlets. I'm disappointed that the original (and still working) light switches in the rooms are push button switches but are not allowed anymore by code. I recall them well in our home when I was a kid. If they've worked since 1910, I wonder why they won't pass code now? Either way, I'm not getting rid of them. I'm certain they have some decent value somewhere.