A FAMILY will appear on TV show Grand Designs on Wednesday, after building their dream home.

Carol and Paul Rimmer, have spent more than £500,000 building their zero carbon, five-bedroomed home, on greenbelt land in Egerton.

The couple, Mr Rimmer a brick layer and Mrs Rimmer who owns her own catering business, applied for the show in 2014.

The mother-of-three said: “The producers said they absolutely loved the concept of the house and wanted us to appear on the show.

“We were shell shocked, we had emailed in on a bit of a whim and didn’t expect to hear anything.”

Mr Rimmer has been a bricklayer since he was 17-years-old and has worked on restoring Victorian terraced houses in Bolton.

However instead of sticking to what he knew he instead used wood, to build his family’s home.

Mrs Rimmer added: “The build was unusual because my husband has spent his life working in brick work but the house frame is made from timber and the house from stone and wood cladding, which is completely new to him.

“The way the house was built was part of the planning application being accepted.

“It is zero carbon which is part of a government initiative.

“It took two years for it to be accepted.”

Filming and building began on June 23, 2015 until September 27 and the couple were filmed throughout the process and got to spend seven days with TV host Kevin McCloud throughout the project.

Mrs Rimmer added: “He would come at 9am and spend the day with us filming certain aspects of the build.

“He was a lovely guy, really nice and very helpful.”

Mrs and Mr Rimmer, of Cox green Road, have built the house on greenbelt land that they own, which is opposite their current home.

However even with Mr McCloud’s help Mrs Rimmer said they project was hard work.

She said: “There were good times and bad times.

“We were in despair at the horrendous weather in January.

“We had put all our life savings in the house and my husband retired from his job to do the build, so we had everything riding on it.

“It was a big risk but it has paid off.”

The couple, who have three daughters—twins aged 24 and a 29-year-old, said that the house is 80 percent finished.

Mrs Rimmer said she hopes they will be able to spend their first Christmas in it this year.

The 54-year-old added:”The pressure is off a little bit now because for filming the house needed to be as finished as possible, so the last two months were quite stressful.

“We had a budget of £350,000 to build the shell of the house and we are roughly on budget and then we then had extra money to spend on the decorating and furnishing the house.

“It is a state of the art home but in a simple style, we have not been extravagant.

“It was all worth while.

“We have made it.”

The Channel 4 show airs at 9pm.