Truer words were never spoken.
I noticed that the vacuum’s plug gets hot in some of our outlets, so I have been replacing them whenever I run across the issue. This weekend I found another one in the solarium. After removing the cover I have decided to accelerate my replacement program. The outlet was covered in a soot-like film and is cracked in half. It is the first one in the photo below.
As of this morning, I have replaced almost all but three of the two-prong ungrounded outlets. I’ll take care of the remaining ones this evening once I can track down which circuit they are on.
It is one of those things that didn’t really cross our minds. Of course, we knew that there were these old outlets throughout the house, but the family who was living here before was using them, so we assumed they were safe.