In my great grandmother's (now deceased) old house, which was falling down, this is basically how the house was wired. There were recepts in the basement with cords going upstairs, into the wall, out of the wall to surface mounts. The upstairs was done the same way, plug it in downstairs, staple it to the wall up, and go through. The few lights were wired in the wall. All of this was ancient Romex w/o grounding wire and zip-cord extension cords. The whole basement where everything ran was wired up to date, however, with the exception of course of the wires heading upstairs. Some guy bought that house, gutted it, fixed the falling roof, and rewired the whole house.
Ian A.
