Mansfield lottery couple: a £41m win? Let's buy a new carpet "I did say a carpet for my landing because it's terrible, nobody's allowed upstairs," she said. It bothers me. I get to the top of the stairs every day and I'm like 'I hate that carpet'. Mr Bull, known as "Bully" who has operated GDB Building for more than 20 years, said they do not plan to their six-bedroom house he built three years ago. Mrs Bull, who plans to continue working in health insurance, also admitted to reporters at Nottingham's Eastwood Hall that she would get a haircut more than twice a year but would not splurge on shopping, a pastime she detests. They said they would also donate a substantial amount to charity after Mr Bull's mother Edith, 67, also from Mansfield, recently recovered from breast cancer. A friend of Mrs Bull's is currently being treated for the same illness. A friend of the couple, who did not want to be named, told The Daily Telegraph: "I grew up with Gareth and so have known him all his life. He was an amazing sportsman at school and a devout Christian. He used to sing in the choir and had a stunning voice as a treble. I recall his singing Ave Maria when the Arch Bishop visited. He took a gap year travelling through Africa and worked in an AIDS clinic in Malawi. He met Catherine there and it was love at first sight. She is a beautiful women with a heart of gold. They added: "They are always thinking of other people. I am sure that a large part of their winnings will go to charitable causes. Mr Bull and two friends, Sam Giles, 42, and Paul Bingley, 40, pitched in with £105,000 each to buy a large plot of land where a cottage and orchard had stood previously, and built adjoining houses for each of them on the land. Each property is currently worth over £335,000. It is the second house Mr and Mrs Bull, who only married around four years ago, have built from scratch. Della Needham, 37, who lives in one of the houses with her partner, Mr Bingley, an electrician and childhood friend of Mr Bull, said Mr Bull was a football and darts fanatic. Her partner and he, along with other friends, would also go to the World Darts Championship every year at the Lakeside in Surrey. She said: "He goes out on his bike with his kids, he's devoted to them." She said Catherine was a keep fit fan who would often go running. I went out with her once and she was a lot fitter than me. We did about six to eight miles and I was done at the end and stopped but she carried on going. Cath's really sociable; she's always out and about. Mrs Bull has a sister, Keeley, who runs a hairdressers in Mansfield, Notts, and two half siblings from her mother's first marriage. She said the friends had supported each other through some difficult times whilst the building work was going on. "It costs a lot of money," she said. And it soon runs out. There have been difficult times but I'm really, really pleased for them. I saw lots of cars around outside the house over the weekend so I guess they were celebrating. Mr Giles said: "He's just a hard-working, good bloke. We've known each other for years and would go on holiday together. Earlier the couple told how they had won the lotto thanks to the weather. Describing the moment he bought the winning ticket, at a Nisa store in Aspley, Nottingham, Gareth added: "Thank God for the rain. I just wanted to kill a bit of time while I was waiting for it to stop. I was going to play the lottery that day, but not at that shop. Her husband was unable to believe he had won when he checked his ticket, even though he thought his ticket matched a few of the numbers. He had to fetch his wife who was not too pleased at being "teased" while she was straightening her hair and getting their sons ready for football. When they did realise they were winners, they still could not work out how much they would get. "I was trying to get my kids ready for football, I was straightening my hair, and I had a thousand things to do," Mrs Bull said. Gareth's face was white, and he was shaking. The ticket was shaking in his hand. I thought he was pulling my leg. I accused him of lying to me, then checked myself and it was true. There was a list of amounts, and we said, 'Surely it's not £40m?' My head was in bits and I thought the numbers matched we had won £4,000. Then I thought it was £40,000, but the zeros and comma's were all in the wrong place and we couldn't work it out. At one point, we thought it was much as £4m, but we couldn't see straight and it didn't seem real. They told their sons to get ready for their football match so they could call Camelot, which confirmed the jackpot total. But they put the win to the back of their minds because they had to take the children to the match, had a children's sleepover planned and were entertaining friends that evening. Mrs Bull said: "A sleepover is cheaper than a party! It got to the point where I felt I was going to explode, so I just kept walking around the football pitch. I met a lady who was thrilled because she had won £500 on the HotPicks lottery, and I told her that was fantastic. It is only now they can really start celebrating as it starts to sink in, they said. Mr Bull, who works with a team of only two or three other builders, added: "All of this has happened at a crazy fast speed since Saturday and it is hard to keep up. Mrs Bull added that she wanted to go back to work. She said: "Ideally I would look to go back. I'm 35, it's a long, long time so I've got to be realistic because I'll go out of my mind at home. I clearly don't like shopping so I'm not going to fill my days doing that. It might be just worth doing something. They said they hoped the win would not change them and they planned to be sensible with their money. Mrs Bull added: "It's not just our money. I've got two boys, I want to be a Grandma and I want to look after them, it's not all about today and tomorrow - it's years. They could also find themselves coming into even more money in the near future if an unchecked scratchcard Mrs Bull has in her purse proves as lucrative as the Lucky Dip ticket. Mr Bull's winning numbers were 02, 10, 22, 27, 28, with the Lucky Star numbers 06 and 08.