Euromillions winners quit work to build their dream home from scratch
A couple have quit work to build their dream home after winning £1million on EuroMillions.
John and Patricia Gill scooped the prize on Christmas Day in 2015, and are now converting a detached property. Patricia said: “The win has bought us time – the time to do so much with our lives. John is now in the process of building our dream home.” The couple are doing the bulk of the work on the former bungalow themselves. They hope to move in in the spring.
Patricia, 60, said her husband, who has an engineering background, has always been “handy”. She added: “He prefers to do it himself. Now that he has retired, it gives him something to get his teeth into.”
She added: “I brush up, I make the tea, I do the sandwich run, but I’ve also been sanding down the door frames, so anything I can do I will get stuck in. I like to keep it clean and tidy because if you are working in a tidy environment it is so much nicer.”
John, 64, said doing the work himself has “helped keep the cost down”. “I did all the initial drawings and then gave it to a guy to draw up the plans” he said. "I’m doing anything and everything. All the plumbing, the central heating - but I won’t be fitting the boiler, obviously. I put all the windows in, I took all the chimney breasts down, cleaned all the bricks. It would cost a fortune if you didn’t do it yourself.”
Shoppers can bag 10 lottery tickets for £1 ahead of Friday's Millionaire Maker
Couple celebrate their big win in 2015 (Daily Mirror)Patricia was an accountant and John ran a truck repair company in Warrington, Cheshire, before selling the firm following their win. Recalling the night he realised they were millionaires, John said: “I just couldn’t work out if I had won £100, £1,000, or £100,000 – and then I realised it was £1,000,000.”
They have continued to play the lottery and Patricia has a ticket for Friday's draw, which has a potential £173million jackpot.
“I hope that someone in the UK will be as lucky as I have been,” she said. “It has given me the time to work less and support local charities which are close to my heart, and that is extremely important to me. We have been on holidays we would never have dreamt of going on - or been able to afford before - including to the Maldives and on a cruise.”
Patricia said supporting their two adult children has also been a highlight. “Our son has his own home, as we were able to help and support him to get on the property ladder, and we will do the same for our daughter too. Just being sensible and thinking carefully about how we want to spend the money is what it has all been about but also making our dreams come true.”
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