Yeah. It looks like a DIY total hack job, for several reasons. There are restrictions on laundry and kitchen receptacles that must be complied with, and that panel is the pits. Have a licensed pro come in to make corrections and look for other problems which, considering what you've shown, are surely to exist.

However, you may have to bring your entire wiring up to current code, depending on where you live; be prepared for that.

In the modern codes, the kitchen area (which includes the dining and pantry areas) needs the receptacle to be on at last two circuits wth no other outlets. The laundry needs a receptacle on its own circuit. Bathroom receptacle circuits are also restricted. Of course, older houses probably won't meet these requirements. As noted, if you do start to do substantial improvements, you'll likely need to bring the parts you touch up to code.

I agree the panel looks like amateur hour.. There are a few SCARY DANGEROUS things that need to be addressed immediately.

The first are the cables coming in through the hole in the panel (which still has the knock out dancing) without a cable clamp. You can bet that eventually the this will wear through and hopefully trip a breaker prior to starting a fire.

I'd also get the wires coming into the panel properly supported. They appear to just leap off into space.

Given the obvious defects, you should have an electrician with a clue come in and check things over.

Is that a bare wire coming out of the top left of the panel (through the crack where the cover would be)? In fact, there sees to be a general lack of grounds connected as near as I can tell.

> "Is that a bare wire coming out of the top left of the panel"

No that is a curtain hanging wire string that is a few feet away from the panel, and just happened to get into the picture.

Well, I got an electrician come and check out my panel, and he says it's fine, and that it's likely over 20 years old. And that if it is redone, it's more like spending money for the sake of spending money. He can redo it so that it is a little bit nicer, but he did not recommend replacing the panel, or doing a major rewiring. He said he can do some neater connections if I so wanted, but it seemed like that was meant to be a cosmetic fix rather than a functional one.

He did quote me $1800 for moving 10 electrical boxes on the ceiling in case we do drywall ceiling in the basement, plus removing an underground wire, and running a dedicated circuit for the washer, running two wires through the joists.

He thought that the wire running through a half punched out knock out is OK? I'd fire him and get someone competent;.

Ron, I am guessing he didn't give it a proper thorough look. He wasn't even going to open the panel up at first, but he did to take a peek. (I did send him these very photos by email before he came over, so he had an idea what he'd see inside).

If you want to drywall your ceiling, can't you just put removable accessible covers on the boxes?