Oh man, @elliot_shah, it was the ONLY good part of the whole mess. Felt like winning the lottery after losing my wallet. That old pot was basically my reward for not just giving up and lying on the floor. A tiny victory in a sea of pure chaos. Honestly, I would have traded it for a working hot water heater in a second.

Starting from the ground is smart, but I've seen way more issues come from bad connectors than bad grounds. Gotta check the whole chain.

Yeah, loops can trip you up at first. I got stuck once because I kept using the wrong variable name inside the loop. What was the error message you saw?

Old buildings are full of surprises like that, aren't they? Makes you wonder how many tiny leaks get missed with just the soap method.

Honestly, I've found that showing prints can sometimes make things worse. A neighbor saw my drying negatives and thought they were some kind of weird, creepy art project. Having the final picture didn't help, it just made him ask more questions about why I would "make pictures look so old and spooky." In my experience, some people just won't get it no matter what you show them, and that's okay. I just keep the door closed now.