It potentially can be surface wired even without conduit, however, Just because there's no attic/crawl access deosn't mean you have to rip all the drywall out to rewire.

Let me get this straight. You would rather have surface mounted conduits ran all over your house, inside and out, instead of patching a few holes and painting???? Sometimes I am amazed at peoples reasoning. It will look stupid and be an eye sore. You will spend more time painting it to match than you would patching and painting holes.

"can the service be supplies externally from the main supply to each room and then each room have it's own breaker where the service enters from the outside?"

I hope you are not planning on doing this yourself. You obviously don't even have a basic understanding of an electrical system. Get a few prices from recommended local electrical contractors and pick one. Then get pricing from a few painting contractors and pick one to do the repairs. Or patch and paint yourself.

Why do you want to re-wire the whole house? Maybe we can talk you out of that.

Maybe an electrician can be interested in doing your work in stages as you have the cash. It might be an attractive proposition for a one-man shop to have a job that can be scheduled in what might otherwise be down time.

The squirrels have chewed almost all the wires in the attic and some in the walls so there is only service to 3 rooms in the entire house. As I live alone, don't entertain and have no plans of selling I don't see why I need to be concerened with the cosmetic aspects plus if there is an issue down the road the walls won't have to be opened up again, the last time i had sheetrock work done it took for ever to get all of the dust out of everything. Also the less contractor the better since I have a history of being taken atvantage of because I know nothing about construction or remodeling, this way I only have to deal with an electrician ( and no I was not planning to do the work myself as one of you so brilliantly deduced I have no knowledge of electical wiring).

Sorry I asked such a stupid question.

Hopefully the admistrator will delete this thread.

"The squirrels have chewed almost all the wires in the attic and some in the walls so there is only service to 3 rooms in the entire house"

This is an imminent fire hazard. You need someone to rodent proof this building and an electrician to rewire the damages areas. Your life is in danger.