7 N 11th Street, New Baden, IL 62265

Some houses are near the fun. This one IS the fun. It's June Jamboree weekend. The park across the street is already buzzing, the kitchen island is covered edge to edge with food, and the cooler is sitting by the back door. By the time the parade rolls past the front yard, half the town knows where the lawn chairs are. For years this has been the house: the pre-party, the after-party, the place everybody ends up. In the fall, the crockpots line up on that island for chili cook-off day, and with two ovens nobody fights over space. On Halloween, you hand out candy from the front porch while the whole town trick-or-treats past your door. All summer, the pool is a flip-flop walk away. The kids go, come back for lunch, and go right back. Then comes the quiet Tuesday after, and that's when this house really becomes yours. Coffee under the vaulted ceiling. Morning light pouring through the big front window. The park is right there across the road, calm again until the next celebration. The...