No harm in replacing the cap. I presume they're not expensive, and it could have been damaged by the heat. As for your surge arrestor, it's entirely possible there was a surge (although loose connections will indeed create heat) - unless the surge is massive, your suppressor will absorb the surge and continue to function. They are a consumable, however, and eventually a large surge will destroy it or, over time it will fail after repeated surges (many of which you'll never notice.) Most suppressors are designed more to save you, than equipment per se (although it certainly helps, equipment longevity-wise.) Power filtering/surge suppressing devices that are aimed at saving equipment are very bulky and expensive.

Just buy the house next door and do a covered walkway between the two. It'd be a hell of a lot easier and cheaper ;) Because that is what you are essentially proposing to do. You're talking about building a nice new modern addition that is the size of a full house. And then attaching it to the old less modern settled over time existing walls and foundation and insulation house. If your neighborhood supports 1.5M comps, you would be miles ahead functionally and financially to do a teardown. You would actually be likely to be able to finance that through a bank if your income would justify the resultant note. If your income would not justify the note, then it's unlikely to be able to support doing the remodel that you envision, as that would be even more costly. And the mix of old and new will not appraise nearly as well as all new. So you spend 1M on this home overall with original purchase price and remodel costs. It won't appraise for that. However, if you spent that overall on a teardown, you would most likely be able to sell it for very close to that if you had to. Never think you won't have to sell. Live your life for you, sure. But, if you can, make sure the risks you take won't wipe you out completely if the unforeseen happens. The problems start, and the real spending of money gets escalated when you attach new to old. Attaching old and wonky to new and straight is a problem. Throw lots of money at it, and the problem gets solved. To do what you've envisioned, you will need all new electrical service from the pole and to redo a good portion of your existing wiring. You'll need all new septic plus extensive reworking of existing plumbing to get it to flow properly to the new septic (or city sewer connection). You will need all new HVAC, and additional reworking of existing ductwork. You'll need all new roof and siding, at least on the back half of the house, and that will make the front half look like a stepchild without it. (Then the new windows won't match the old drafty ones, and you'll be replacing them too.) You'll need to completely retrofit the old house to modern seismic standards. In other words, you're already completely rebuilding the major money portions of the old part of the house anyway, so going ahead and tearing down what's there makes it able to be completely rebuilt to modern wiring, plumbing, window, seismic, and insulation standards much easier for the tradesman. That equates to a lot cheaper labor to do everything when the walls are completely open during new construction than it is to fish everything in existing walls in old. That's the biggest reason why remodeling is much more expensive than new construction. Labor is high. Retrofitting is more labor intensive than new construction. And you live in CA. The red tape capital of the US. It just got even harder (and more costly) with the requirements that your state and potentially your muncipality requires. There's nothing wrong with spending your money on your home if that's where you want to spend it. You'll have more substantial visible results than if you had a crack cocaine problem. But, be sure you understand that you are spending your money with a remodel. You will not get the financial return on investment that a teardown or moving would give you. You're literally digging a big hole in your back yard and burying dollar bills. If you're lucky, you might get 1 out of 20-30 of those dollar bills returned to you in the ephemeral (but important) "resale value". If you are totally comfortable with those financial ramifications, and the increased utility and comfort in living is worth it to you to spend that money on, then do proceed with the plans as you've outlined. If the notion of burying that much money makes you uncomfortable, then you should definitely explore the other options here.

It sounds like you had a 240 volt (only) receptacle with no neutral, but he's trying to create a multiwire circuit and using the ground as a neutral. The GFI sees a neutral/ground fault and trips. He should have fitted only one 20a breaker to the panel and made this into a single 20 amp 120 volt circuit. That's my guess, anyway, without having seen it.

I have a 92 Chevy Caprice Classic that I've been driving for 19 years. I drive it about 8 months out of the year. In winter it's parked under cover, but the rest of the time it's in my driveway or parked under a tree. A month ago I took it to the mechanic to be inspected and have an ABS sensor replaced. It turned to need new brake pads as well. When I drove it home, the climate control was acting strangely. "Vent," which normally brings in air from the outside, now produced air conditioning. And the fan, which is controlled by a separate switch, didn't turn off when I turned off the A/C-Vent-Heat switch. It normally does. Plus an awful smell was coming out of the system. To me it smelled like moldy tobacco. (No one has ever smoked in the car.) So I took it back to the mechanic. He said nothing he did in the previous repair would have impacted the climate control. He looked at it and said debris from the tree had gotten into the area by the windshield wipers and clogged up the A/C drain, and that's what I'd been smelling. He cleaned it out and left the panel off it so that it could dry out. He said he'd put the panel back on in a week. It's past a week now, but I still smell the smell and the other problems haven't changed. Also, the engine sounds like the A/C is on all the time, even when it's turned off. It makes that cycling sound, if you know what mean. That doesn't seem like a good thing. I love this car (I really love this car!), but I'm on a fixed income and don't have much of a budget for car repairs. It's been amazingly free of trouble all these years, but does this repair sound like something that's going to make up for that? Here's my car's "glamour shot." :-)