I moved to Texas in 2002. Before that, I lived in the SF Bay Area. If you built houses in the 80's, then you know how poorly they where built. Everything about them is substandard to what is being built today. I'm also sure that you know that the big changes to Code happened in the 90's after the big quakes in 89. When I left the state, we where tying solid, continuous strapping from the foundation rebar into the rafters or trusses because of earthquakes. The depth of footings, the amount and size of rebar, and how it was tied together all changed. Did you even bolt them to the foundation when you where building there, because that was another big change that happened in the 90's. Before that, builders where doing whatever they wanted with sill plates. It was big money going around and drilling sill plates and bolting them down when everything change after 89.