During our inspection we learned that although there were three pronged outlets throughout the house the ones in the original structure were not actually grounded. This led us to request that GFCIs be put in the areas required by law as well as asking them to ground the outlets throughout the house. When the handyman showed up to give the current owners an estimate on the work to be done they were told the whole house would need to be rewired in order for the outlets to be grounded. This would include ripping open the walls which would be very costly as the tile in the kitchen and bathroom are vintage (original to the house from 1948) and therefore we could not simply replace the tiles that are damaged, but would have to retile everything. He quoted a reasonable price for the GFCI outlets, however without the outlets first being grounded they won't work the way they are intended. All this being said there was a little good news for us, there is a grounded outlet in the living room behind where their TV currently lives and the West wall of the North bedroom is also grounded.
Once we get in the house I can take a better look at the electrical myself and see if I can ground the outlets myself or if that is just not in the cards for us, this will depend on a number of things like what kind of wiring we have in the house. I'm hoping that we can find a way to ground the outlets without having to rip open the walls, because that would take us some time to be able to do. If that is the only way then we would hold off on at least the kitchen and bathroom until we are ready to remodel them since that would mean having to retile anyhow.
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