Take on the funky wiring

When we bought our house we thought it was awesome but a few days into
it we noticed that the light all seem to be funky. We had lights in
the living room which would only come in if the kitchen lights were
on. When using the toaster, the lights would dim and when you went to
the upstairs hallway there was some combination of on/offs that had to
be done to get the lights to turn on and that code proved harder to
crack than the DNA code.
Five hours and $500 later, I got a light bank that works, a huge hole
in my wall and still a couple of funky outlets but at least the lights
don't turn out when I am on the shitter