I won this £4.5 million Omaze house, here's how it changed my life

Daren Bell, a technical support director, 54, from Bournemouth, reveals how his life was transformed after he bought a £10 ticket for an Omaze property prize draw and won a mansion in Norfolk.

It was only when I was sweeping the last of the yellow confetti off my front path that I realised what had just happened was actually real.

A few hours earlier, as I was returning home at around 5pm from a day out with my partner Claire, 46, a film crew suddenly descended on my doorstep and announced I had won a multi-million-pound house. Someone popped a confetti cannon over us and a camera filmed my face as I was hit by all kinds of crazy emotions. I asked, "Is this real?" I was assured, yes, I wasn’t hallucinating: I had just won a £4.5 million dream home.

I saw a TV ad about the chance to win an incredible modern home in Cornwall in May 2023 and signed up to pay £10 a month to be entered into a prize draw. The competition was run by Omaze, a company which holds prize draws for incredible houses and also raises money for charity.

I didn’t win that house, or the two after, but I kept my monthly subscription because it didn’t seem like much for what I could potentially win – and I liked that some of the money went to charity. But in September I discovered I had been picked as the winner of an astonishingly luxurious property in Norfolk. Ever since then, it’s like a rocket has gone off under my life.

Moving our relationship forward

I’m the first to admit I prioritised work and my hobby of teaching skydiving over holding down relationships. But Claire and I just clicked when we met seven years ago, in her family’s café where she worked as a waitress.

Despite getting on so well, we never thought we’d be able to live together. Claire has four children, aged nine to 16, from previous relationships, and there was no space for me in her rented home. I lived around the corner, in Bournemouth, with my four cats and a fish, in a four-bedroom property I owned. I was a creature of habit and I didn’t feel I could cope with the whole family moving into my place either.

We loved each other but we were stuck with no way to move our relationship forward as neither of us could afford to relocate. But winning the Norfolk house has changed everything.

A house of dreams

We couldn’t tell anyone what had happened until Omaze was ready to announce my win in the media. So, we hadn’t even told the children when we were taken to visit the house a few days after the doorstep reveal.

I love my job as a technical support director of a major facilities management firm, and I’m a bit of a workaholic – I don’t think I’ve had a day off in five years – so when I asked my boss for two days off at short notice (so I could visit the house) he was so worried I was seriously ill, that I had to let him know the truth. He was thrilled for me and promised not to tell anyone.

Walking towards the house for the first time was incredible. It’s a modern build in just the style I love, and it’s been beautifully furnished by the Omaze team. It still takes my breath away now every time I come home. I pinch myself so much to remind myself I’m not dreaming, I joke that a side effect of winning has been constant bruises.

My first thought when I saw the house, apart from ‘Wow, wow, wow’, was that this needed to be a home for all of us. There are five bedrooms in the main house, plus four others in a linked cabin and a separate home office called The Hub, which I use for work. The facilities are incredible – there’s a home cinema, a gym, a massive outdoor pool and the living spaces are huge. There’s plenty of room for everyone to relax without getting on top of each other.

The house is outside a lovely, little village called Blakeney, near the Norfolk coast. More than 20 years ago, I jumped out of a plane over the exact same patch of land and was struck by how beautiful it was. Now here I was, on the ground, thinking it was even more beautiful – and now it was mine.

We’ve never been showy so, to celebrate, we went for a burger at a local pub, where I had a pint and Claire had a glass of wine. The Omaze team were asking us if we wanted champagne but I think we were too overwhelmed to take it all in. We were also introduced to some lifeboat volunteers from the RNLI – the house draw raised £1.4 million for the charity.

Making the house a home

When we went back to Claire's house, we showed the kids a film of the property and they were hysterically happy. Everyone was running around, jumping up and down – there was a lot of screaming. We explained they would need to move schools to Norfolk and, although they were sad about leaving their friends, they were all just so excited to get into the new house.

On the day my win was publicly announced, a week after I found out I had won, I was giving an online presentation with my team. It was an important meeting and I was doing my best to concentrate but suddenly my phone started buzzing so much that I had to sit on it.

Claire and the kids moved in before me in October. Luckily it was not long after the school year started, so they could get settled in their new schools. Then I joined them a few weeks later, once I’d sorted out my affairs in Bournemouth. The Omaze house was fully furnished with beautiful, quality pieces which is just as well because our furniture would have been totally lost in it. But it’s been nice to put our own touches on the house too, like photos on the walls and memorabilia from my younger days in the Army.

I’m working on installing a wildflower meadow and beehives in the garden. We haven’t had a chance to use the pool yet, but we can’t wait to open it this spring. The children haven’t learnt to swim yet, so it’s great that they’ll finally have the opportunity to learn such an important life skill.

Sharing the win

Winning the house didn’t mean I suddenly had millions in the bank, but I was given £100,000 by Omaze to help cover upkeep and bills. Ironically, my council tax is only £300 more per year than when I lived in a house less than half the size in Bournemouth. And I’ve installed solar panels, so my electricity bills should be reasonable.

I’m still working full-time but I’ll re-evaluate that in a few years – I may cut down my hours or retire early. I’ve sold my old home in Bournemouth, so I have around £750,000 saved. Claire doesn’t need to work now but she’s very independent and loves working with people, so she now works part-time as a home help and with the local church.

It’s still early days but we’re settling well into our new lives. The younger children are in a lovely village school and the older one gets the bus to school in the next town. I’ve started volunteering for the local branch of the Royal British Legion.

I’m hoping to move my 84-year-old Dad in too, as there’s space for him to live in the cabin, once he finally retires from his job as an NHS porter. It will be so nice to have all the generations together in one place.

Friends and family have all been in touch wanting to come to stay – I don’t mind at all because it’s a joy to have people in the house. A few weeks ago, I had some friends over to watch the Six Nations in the cinema room. It was completely surreal but they loved it.

A life-changing experience

Before I won the house, I was doing OK. I could see light at the end of the tunnel with paying off my mortgage. I lived in a nice house, in a nice part of the country, by myself with my cats. Now, all of my real worries about money are over. I live in an amazing house, in a wonderful part of the country, and I’m here with my partner and her children. I’m so grateful, I count our blessings every day.

Winning the house has been a seismic life change but it’s been the tonic we all needed. My family and friends are thrilled I won but most of all they’re surprised I’ve finally settled down. I have a new house but more than anything I have a new life – a new home and a new family.