Rocco Barker and Dawn Buckler would look more at home backstage at Glastonbury than on a building site in Spain. Rocco – who you may or may not recognise as the lead guitarist from the 1980s goth band Flesh for Lulu – and Dawn, his Canadian girlfriend, a media PA, have no money and no DIY skills. In fact, they don’t even know which airport flights to Girona leave from.

But they do have a dream. Well, Dawn does, anyway. A dream to escape their humdrum lives in north London and restore and redesign a house in the hills outside Barcelona, which they will then rent out as a retro retreat to A-listers. Rocco would actually rather have created a private home – but that’s after the fact.

The couple’s torturous and sometimes disastrous renovation project – think Spinal Tap meets A Place in the Sun – is the subject of a new 10-part Channel 4 series, A Place in Spain: Costa Chaos, which starts on Friday. “I loved making the series, but I hated nearly every moment of working on the house,” says Rocco, 46, clearly not a natural DIYer.

However, disillusioned with the rock’n’roll lifestyle – “One minute, it’s a stretch limo outside the London Hilton, the next it’s signing on in Kilburn High Road” – Rocco, who resembles Jarvis Cocker in his oversized glasses and big-collared retro shirts, admits he immediately fell in love with the five-bedroom house they found in the village of Sant Feliu del Raco. He also has a bent for design – and an awesome collection of abstract art and vintage furniture – that he was desperate to put to good use.

Though he describes himself as “quite handy”, Rocco’s main problem is getting out of bed, much to the fury of the leopardskin-clad Dawn, 31, who snarls at him, in the first episode: “I’m not your bloody mother.”

The house is about a 30-minute drive from Barcelona. The couple, who have been together for about four years, spotted the alpine-style 1970s property in January 2005; they bought it four months later for £202,000. They have spent “three times that”, according to Dawn, or “beyond five times”, if you believe Rocco, doing it up. And no, the pair didn’t agree a budget beforehand.

“We gutted the house, added an extension, built a swimming pool, put in new tiles everywhere,” says Dawn. “I can’t quite believe Casa Jet Set is nearly finished.”

The series charts their turbulent progress. In the first episode, they miss their flight, leaving José, their property lawyer, waiting for hours at Girona airport. In an attempt to appease him, they take him out on the town, where they proceed to drink themselves into oblivion. “God, you must be horny,” she slurs to the unfortunate Spaniard at 3am, after he admits that he hasn’t had a girlfriend for seven years.

The couple continue to lurch through disasters: deposit crises, mortgage dilemmas, problems with workmen, lovers’ tiffs. They even survive – just – an onslaught from Dawn’s girlfriends and the intrusion of a live-in builder.

It is mostly good-natured. “We wanted to have fun,” says Rocco. “It was my job to do the design of the house, and I love the huge living-room extension. I walked out just before I finished it, though. I couldn’t take any more – it was too stressful. But I will go back and finish it.”

So, what would they do differently next time? “Um, well, we’d have a budget,” says Dawn regretfully. “We are so in debt.” And what advice would she give to anyone else looking to create their dream home in the Spanish sun? Starting off with some money is a good idea, says Dawn. Then learn some of the basics – “like what foundations and electrics are”.

The whole process has been plagued with mishaps. “The crap electricians took down our lightning conductor and forgot to put it back up,” Dawn says. Lightning struck three weeks ago, destroying their £8,000 hot tub.

Dawn and Rocco, now back in London for a break, are hoping their first guests will arrive in October. The website for the villa, which sleeps eight, puts weekly rental at £1,800, or £2,500 including 24-hour butler and translator service, plus a daily maid. How is their relationship now? “Strained,” Dawn says. “But we’re still together.”

As for the future, Dawn will probably stay in Spain for a bit, running Casa Jet Set as a small business; Rocco says he “didn’t want to turn into Basil Fawlty”, so is going back to his roots to work on his new band, Rocco’s Ruthless Cartel, which he describes as an all-girl band, “including me. We’re a mix of the New York Dolls and the Velvet Underground, with a splash of Dean Martin”.

What are his final words of caution for the would-be overseas property renovator? “If it’s a dream you have as a couple, make sure you’re set on each other – you have such big decisions to make. And don’t be fooled by any of those programmes you see on telly showing you how easy it is to create your dream home. That’s rubbish.”

A Place in Spain: Costa Chaos starts on Friday, on Channel 4, 8pm; www.casajetset.com

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