Hi Kate,

For the longest time I've wondered if anything happened of any nature prior to the 2/28/01 quake, just like you mentioned. But most people are so busy, they really don't notice things.

The home I just sold really started changing/moving/cracking after the Yountville quake. Such as one day I noticed I could no longer open the livingroom window. It just appeared to be stuck. Several weeks ago I found a hairline crack going at an angle from the window to the corner of the wall. Within a few days it got really big. So I patched it and all the other cracks and painted. To my dismay a few days ago before I left, I saw the crack had returned. That is very unusual, but I also noticed the window frame had been moved as well and that's why the window wouldn't open. The top corner was pushing in and the lower corner was slightly open.

Everyone around here will most often tell us that this is normal due to the adobe soil, but this quick return of cracks is not. In talking to people over the last few months everyone is reporting home wall cracking and my prior neighbor had his slab foundation crack right in the middle of his livingroom.

The house I live in now is about 10 years old and has no cracks whatsoever. That's a good sign.

Thanks for telling me what you noticed, these could be important observations.

Petra