Jack and Charmian London lived in the Cottage from 1911 to 1916 and often greeted guests on its north porch, which served as the front door to their home. Their closest friends stayed in the Cottage, while others slept across the way in a building Jack constructed over part of the Old Winery ruins. Jack London invited visitors to look them up when they were in that part of the country, promising blankets, food, and a latchstring always out. He described a household that rose early and worked in the forenoon, saw guests in the afternoons and evenings, breakfasted from 7 till 9, and gathered together for dinner at 12:30. Guests could work if they wished or enjoy horses, saddles, rigs, and, in summer, a swimming pool. Because they did not yet have a house of their own, they were living in a small house adjoining their ranch, and friends were lodged in little cabins nearby to sleep.