Casa A Schiera DI Sintra

I AM THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE ROAD.

It’s not a metaphor. I really am.

To reach me, you have to turn into a small private access road shared by just three properties.

Here, the houses don’t even have street numbers. They have names.

Mine is Casa da Ribeira — The Riverside House.

And it isn’t a name chosen simply because it sounds good in a property listing. In winter, when the water is flowing, you can still hear the stream.

Perhaps that is why, despite being so close to everything, the first sound you hear in the morning can still be birdsong.

I am in Baratã, Sintra, surrounded by greenery, in a residential area of houses where you can still find the kind of peace and quiet that is becoming increasingly difficult to come by this close to Lisbon.

And I have another interesting quality: from here, it is very easy to reach the main road connections. So, while I may feel wonderfully secluded when you are sitting in my garden, I am certainly not cut off from the world.

I sit on a 840 m² plot, with more than 620 m² of outdoor space.

And quite a lot has happened in this garden.

There is a swimming pool where the children learned that “just five more minutes” never really means five minutes.

There is room to run, space for four-legged friends, outdoor lunches and long afternoons spent with family and friends.

There is also a barbecue area, an outdoor bathroom and even a shower by the pool — because a home where summer is truly lived should be ready for it.

And then there is a very special tree.

Around here, they call it the dummy tree.

It still holds the dummies once left there by the children and cousins who grew up in this house.

It wasn’t created for the photographs, nor invented as part of a sales story. It had been part of this family’s life long before anyone imagined that one day I would have new owners.

Perhaps that is why the houses around here have names.

Houses are living things. And I have already been home to some beautiful stories.

Now, come inside. I have quite a lot to show you.

Officially, I am a two-storey house.

But families don’t live according to property records.

On paper, I am registered as a T6, but over the years my rooms have been adapted to the way this family actually wanted to live.

On the ground floor, the social areas take centre stage.

I have a spacious living room with a fireplace, plenty of natural light and several direct connections to the garden.

Beside it is a second living area, currently used as a children’s space and home office.

And this is one of my advantages: this room can be used as a bedroom again whenever life requires it, particularly as there is a full bathroom on this floor.

The kitchen deserves a chapter of its own.

It is large and practical, with a central island, and connects naturally with the social areas.

But what you may not immediately notice in the photographs is perhaps just as important: I have a pantry, laundry room and utility/plant room, because a family home needs to work just as well behind the scenes as it does in the rooms we show to visitors.

There is also a second pantry area that has been transformed into a generous wardrobe and storage space on this floor.

Then come my open stone stairs, leading to the upper floor.

Here you will find two generously sized bedrooms, a large shared bathroom and the principal suite.

And when I say suite, I don’t simply mean a bedroom with a bathroom attached so that it can be given the name.

I have a walk-in wardrobe and a particularly spacious en-suite bathroom.

And this is also where you will find the balcony.

Not just any balcony.

One with the kind of view that doesn’t need too many adjectives.

Open the door, look ahead, and you will understand.

Greenery, nature and an open outlook that, particularly at the end of the day, makes you want to stay just a little longer.

In fact, there is one feature shared by all my bathrooms:

every one of them has a window and natural light.

Outside, I also have three independent storage spaces.

One of them has the potential to be transformed into a small guest space, naturally subject to the necessary checks, approvals and legal requirements.

I also have an electric vehicle charging point, private parking within the property and enough outdoor space for cars, bicycles, toys, pets and people not to have to compete for territory.

But perhaps my greatest quality isn’t something you will find on a list of features.

It is my location.

Because when you are outside, beside the swimming pool, surrounded by greenery with birdsong in the background, it is easy to forget that you are in Baratã, Sintra, with quick access to the main road network and Cascais, Sintra and Lisbon easily integrated into everyday life.

And in winter, there is one more sound.

The stream that gave me my name.

I have space.

I have privacy.

I have nature on my doorstep.

I have a swimming pool that already knows the sound of countless splashes.

I have a tree that still holds the dummies of the children who grew up here.

And I have a name:

Casa da Ribeira.

We houses are rather like life itself: we are made of chapters and cycles.

We hold within our walls the things that time cannot take away.

And one day, the moment comes to open the door and let those who were happy within us move on, so that we can become the beginning of someone else’s story.

My story with this family ends here.

Perhaps ours is only just beginning.