On 05 Jan 2004, Goedjn wrote:

... But it would make more sense, to me, anyway to
find someone competent to make a map of how the place is
wired, first. There's almost certainly a way to make it
work properly.

Exactly.

*MY* guess is that someone replacing the
ceiling fixture swapped wires around in it, and if you can
figure out which wires in the ceiling box go (respectively)
to the switch, outlet, and power supply, you can fix it with
a wire-nut.

I can't see it from here ($1 a.hvac) of course, but my guess
is that whoever did the hacked "add on" wired the outlets to
the switched black wire rather than the source black wire,
and it can be fixed in moments by somebody who

-knows- -what- -to- -look- -for- (*)

Oh, and the "person with an EE degree" should not be
allowed to touch any of your home wiring, ever again.

Exactly, #2. See (*) above. This person with the EE might
be the smartest EE in the world, that doesn't mean he knows
how to spot a mis-wired 120VAC circuit. It's not what they
look at 50 weeks a year.

--
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