The web site says buy tickets in advance and that parking could be a problem- believe it! We went on a weekday and parking lot got almost full. But even with a lot of people, because estate is large with indoor and outdoor spaces, it was never that crowded.
The web site indicates there is a 15 minute architecture tour at noon and another 15 minute tour of the garden area at 2pm, but when we arrived, signs also indicated two other 15 minute tours at 11am and 3pm. Unfortunately the 10am kitchen tour started late and lasted only 5-10 minutes. We did not attend the 2 or 3pm tours but we did attend the noon architecture tour. It was wonderful! Kudos to Nancy who led the tour. The tour was a full 45 minutes long and Nancy was a wealth of interesting information. I don’t know if Nancy expanded the tour or if this timeframe was normal, but I strongly suggest to the people in charge that they provide more clearly defined information. The architecture tour covered the house exterior, and most of the interior including the kitchen (making the kitchen tour as they have it completely superfluous).
The staff was very nice and helpful. They are all volunteers. As noted, Nancy’s tour was excellent, and she manned 2 other locations later during our visit, and we spoke to Bill in the garden are who was very informative and helpful.
There is a nice cafe and beer garden on the grounds for lunch/ snack and rest. We also walked the 1 mile trail behind the house which was nice. On this walk, we crossed a small bridge covering a stream of the San Andreas Fault.