The Big Front Yard

This 1959 winner of the Hugo in the novelette category is pure Clifford D. Simak. Simak's universe was at the same time both infinite and just outside of your front door.

Hiram Taine is a local fixit man and antique salesman who happens to be in the right place at the right time as an alien presence lands and uses his house as the base for their interplanetary/interdimensional transport. This tale still reads as fresh and homely as when it came out of Cliff's typewriter.