Villa for sale in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona

The wrong house will take you away from your passion; the right one will accompany you on your adventures. Welcome to Daneu House.

The first time I saw the house, I thought this family must have a story. It wasn’t because of the terrace. Not even because of the views, although from up there the landscape stretched as far as the eye could see. It was because of a passion. It was downstairs. But I didn’t know that yet.

We had entered from the street, directly onto the main floor, and until then everything seemed to follow the reasonable order of things. A house built in 1999, around one hundred square metres on that floor, open views bringing in light, four bedrooms, a bathroom and a large kitchen. Truly large. The kind that still remembers a time when kitchens were not designed solely for cooking, but for staying in.

At the end was the terrace. I walked over. There are views one simply looks at, and others that, for a few seconds, make you stop talking. Sant Vicenç del Horts at your feet.

Behind me, the owner was waiting. He has spent years working in the automotive world and talks about cars in an unusual way. He didn’t mention speed much. He talked about balance, precision, and listening to a machine until you know what it needs.

Then he pointed to the staircase.

“The best part is still to come,” he said with a smile.

And we went downstairs.

Then I understood the house. Downstairs there wasn’t a garage. Or at least, not only a garage. There was more than one hundred square metres of space and an entire life spread throughout it. Trial bikes. Circuit bikes. Tools. Memories. Photographs. Objects that would probably be decorations to anyone else, but which had a story behind them for this family.

It was their territory. The place one goes down to when one needs a few hours to oneself.

There was also a utility room, a storage room and a large play area. But what was truly extraordinary was the sense of space. You could imagine four cars there. Or motorbikes. Or a gym. A workshop. A games room. Or all of those things at once.

We kept walking. Light was coming in at the far end. And that house I thought I had understood twice changed once again.

We stepped out into the garden. First came the pergola. Then the wooden outdoor bar. Beyond that, the chill-out area. And finally, the barbecue. In fact, the barbecues. There were two.

I smiled. Having got to know the family a little, it was beginning to seem perfectly logical to me that this house had two barbecues.

I imagined a July evening. The motorbikes already stored downstairs. Someone preparing l