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6 Shockers About ‘The Bachelor’ Mansion We’ll Bet You Never Knew

Attention, “Bachelor” Nation! Now that your oh-so-guilty pleasure is back on the air (with plenty of fish—um … dolphins? Sharks?—in the sea for bachelor Nick Viall), it’s time to dish some dirt.

It was recently revealed by Us Weekly that the 11,000-square-foot mansion where the drama of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” unfolds isn’t just some modern-day castle in the sky (or at least a structure on a studio lot), but a real honest-to-god home where regular people live in Southern California.

Talk about a shocker!

That’s right, during the 10 months of the year when the house isn’t invaded by bachelors and bachelorettes desperately vying for that final rose, this sprawling home in Agoura Hills is inhabited by Marshall Haraden, owner of a general contracting and construction firm, and his family.

After moving in shortly after the home was built in 2005, Haraden was approached by ABC’s production team about renting out his place for the 11th season of this hit show, slated to air in 2007.

It was a proposal Haraden felt he couldn’t refuse, so he said yes. And this union has now lasted longer than most of the show’s couples. Way longer, in fact.

So what’s it like to own “The Bachelor” home? Haraden hasn’t talked to the media much, but here are some surprising nuggets we uncovered.

Shocker No. 1: The walls have 44 coats of paint

To get the house in tiptop condition for filming, each season the walls are covered with two new coats of paint. Because this is the 22nd season, the walls now have a whopping 44 coats.

And they don’t just keep repainting the same shade of eggshell white. The set decorators choose a new shade every season, depending on the gender of the sought-after singleton doling out roses.

Shocker No. 2: Nothing you see in the home belongs to the family who lives there

Imagine having to move out of your house twice a year. That’s part of the lucrative deal that Haraden and his family have had with the show and their reality for nearly a decade. But here’s the weird part: Everything that’s not part of the structure of the house is moved out for filming.

“Curtains, TVs, pots and pans, clothes—everything in one day goes out,” Haraden told Us Weekly. Even the family’s fab (and pricey) dining table and chairs, which fit very well with the Mediterranean decor of the home, get thrown into storage. But considering the habits of many of the TV guests, that’s probably just as well.

Shocker No. 3: Contestants have to (gasp!) cook their own food

The show has been known to provide the contestants with an unending supply of alcohol, but when it comes to preparing food, they’re very much on their own.

“We have to do our own cooking, our own laundry. … We do everything you would do when you’re at home,” said Season 17 alum Leslie Hughes. The production team keeps the house stocked with pantry basics, veggies, and snacks. Any special food requests are put on a list and retrieved from the outside world by a “handler.”

Shocker No. 4: There is no gym—but contestants make do

Looking hot in evening wear and skimpy bathing suits is an unspoken prerequisite for the contestants, so we’re hardly shocked to hear that most of them work out hard, between bouts of partying, while living in the house. But since this massive home doesn’t have a formal gym, they have to get creative.

“One day I ran laps around the outside of the house,” Season 14’s Ashleigh Hunt said. Aerial shots of the home show plenty of hills for them to run, just as long as they don’t run off the property.

Shocker No. 5: The rose ceremonies take place in the den

After the dreamy dates and heartfelt discussions, each episode comes down to the rose ceremony, during which the Bachelor or Bachelorette hands out red roses to the suitors they want to stick around. What we see on screen is a room covered in silk fabric and candles (so many candles!), but in reality it’s just a normal-looking den complete with comfy couches. Ah, the magic of reality TV!

The ceremony, which appears to take no more than 10 minutes in the final cut of the show, can actually roll into the wee hours of the night, which can cause tensions to run high. (Remember when this girl fainted during the rose ceremony?)

Shocker No. 6: Owning this home results in some strange déja vu moments

While Haraden won’t say how much he’s paid to rent out his home for this hit show, he will say that he watches it religiously and can’t help but be a fan. Still, he admits, it’s strange to turn on the TV and see people flirting—or even suffering a panic attack—on his property. As he told Us Weekly, “You’ll come back in and put stuff together, and it’s like, ‘Oh, that just happened right here.’”

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