The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - From Roses to Hammers with Dean Bell

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Ben is hanging out with Dean Bell at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and he’s ready to share all the behind the scenes (and nuts & bolts) of the upcoming HGTV show Bachelor Mansion Takeover!Dean reveals the project helped him feel more connected than any other show he’s done, and we find out why there may be more drama on a renovation show than The Bachelor! Plus, Dean shares some simple DIY tips for anyone looking to pick up a power drill!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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from Carmel, California. We're here at the AT&T Pro Am. This is our annual, almost famous golf trip. And right now I am joined by Dean Bell. Dean, it's been too long since you've been on the show. Yeah. Too long.

Thanks. I agree. I agree. You just had to do something and you've done it. We're going to talk today about your new show that's coming out. Oh yeah. You are the star of this show. I personally think it's going to be a fantastic show. Well, first of all, I'm one of 11 other stars. There's 12 stars.

In my mind, you are the star of this show. It's like a proud of follow. Yeah, you're going to be competing on the new HG TV show Bachelor Mansion Takeover. Can you explain to all the listeners what exactly this is? I mean, yeah, it's a pretty straightforward concept, right? They got 12 past contestants from the Bachelor or Bachelor rep, all with either like design or DIY or construction backgrounds and put us all together and let us compete, I guess, with designing rooms. So like the first challenge we get sent into teams and we have to design the bedroom areas while working in a team. And it was really fun because I like that stuff.

I like DIY. I like building. I like taking risks when it comes to like designing things. And so it was fun to be a part of that. The I think the show will be well received. I do think it's a fun concept. My one question is how would they ever do a season two? I was asking them that exact same question.

They're like, well, shoot, if it's successful enough, we'll just rip all this stuff out. I knew it all again. That's pretty cool. That's wild. So yeah, I'm excited to watch it. I don't know, like, it's so interesting because when I went on The Bachelorette,

the first time I had never watched The Bachelorette. And obviously, I've never watched this show because it's never, this is the only scenes than they've ever done of it. So I always try to like temper my expectations when it comes to to watching it. And especially now this time around now that I'm married and my life is all set up in Colorado and all that stuff. It's weird being back on a television show because I just give way less, um, um, Fs for lack of a better word, you know.

And for better or for worse, I'm not sure if it's going to hurt me or help me. But it was just fun to like mess around and have some fun. And you enjoyed the experience. Overall, would you say you had a good time? Overall, yeah, it was great. I mean, I can't give too much information, obviously. Otherwise, my NDA will be, you know, but. You can tell me if you had a good time or not?

Yeah, I was going to give specific examples of like how or why I had a good time and stuff. But yeah, I had a great time. It was fun. Like I said, I like building and I like thinking and creating. So I got to do all that there. Fans right now are excited about this show coming out. but I do think there is a group of fans. We're a little nervous because they love this iconic mansion.

They've watched it. They've celebrated it. They love the mansion. Do you feel like the show respects and honors how this mansion has always been perceived or will fans have to get ready for a brand new look? Yeah, great question, Ben. I think that the contestants of the show really did a good job with taking everything into consideration with the house.

The house was about like a Spanish style architecture. And at least the challenges that I remember, I do think everyone took all that into consideration and did their best effort to maintain, but just improve. It is a competition show. And you are very talented. If you follow Dean on social media or Kalin on social media, you'll see some of the projects that Dean has completed

and worked on for their home. And he is spectacular when it comes. to carpentry, design, that creative kind of part of the brain that so many of us lack. But if this is a competition show, are you a competitive person? Yeah, I mean, I grew up with two older brothers. So I've kind of got this weird dilemma in my life when it comes to competitiveness is I'm super competitive. I always want to win.

But because I have two older brothers, I always lost growing up. So I'm so competitive, but I am so comfortable losing. And it's just like this weird catch 22 I feel like right where like I try so hard to win, but I rarely ever do. And I do think that the competitive nature for all of the contestants on this show really shine through. It's going to be interesting. Like I've been watching traders, right? This new season of traders for the first time. And they're like way more cut throw on that show than I think we were on this show. Like this is an HD TV renovation show. So I don't really watch a lot of television to begin with. So that's kind of all I have to really compare it to. But I'm pretty sure

everyone was very competitive on that show to the point where it was like people were yelling. Some people were crying. Some people were fighting. And, you know, it's hard when so many people are working together on a small space to get your idea out there and on top because other people are going to have different ideas that they're going to disagree with yours and you have to fight for yours. And it's, it was just a really interesting dynamic because typically the only person I have to fight with on a design idea is my wife. and she wins 100% of the time. So, you know, it's going to be fun to watch, I think.

The concept for the show, it feels like the show will work if people take ownership in the process. Was there a moment during the filming of the show where you're like, okay, people actually care to make this? Not only great because I want to win, but great because we're enjoying the idea that we're on a television show to renovate? Yeah, I mean, it was really interesting to see. everyone was basically taking, because we would be done filming the show by like 7 p.m. Let's say, for example.

And at 9 p.m., I'd bump into people like on their laptops coming up with skews and ideas for this competition. And I was like, wow, you guys are really like taking this home and doing your homework and trying really hard. And I'm like sitting at the bar drinking some whiskey.

Yeah. I feel like I should probably try a little bit harder for this. Yeah. So there's a lot of ownership, I think, that a lot of those people had. And it's, It's just, it's hard when you're, when you're filming that all day and then to come home and,

and obsess about it even more because then you're like just so involved in it, you know? Yeah. It is something that obviously people from all seasons of the Bachelor and Bachelorette and Golden Bachelor were a part of, was there somebody that you connected to specifically that you could share, maybe that you didn't really know before the show? Yeah, I didn't really know any of the contestants before the show. The only one I had spent even a little. bit of time with was Noah and that was like we golfed together twice when we both with in California.

I really, I mean, I like the guys for just because kind of like what we talked about last night, it's like a bit of a fraternity, right? You kind of bond over your shared experiences. I think Jill and I got along great. I think Jill's awesome. Jill's hilarious. Yeah, she's hilarious. Right. And she's just such a wild card and it's kind of fun to be around those types of people because you never know what they're going to say next. And so I enjoyed that a lot. But yeah, I mean, I will say for a renovation show, there's a lot more drama than I expected there to be. What was the most challenging part for you filming this? I mean, I'm sure you feel this way sometimes because you travel quite a bit.

When you embark on a new trip or whatever, especially something like this for an unknown amount of time, you start by being really excited about it. And by like, especially now that you have a daughter, I can only imagine how much worse it is for you. But by like the third or fourth day, you're like, man, I just miss my wife. I miss my dog, my cat, my home. And I feel like the older I get, the more I kind of like being home more. And so being away from home for however long, that might have been the biggest challenge, I think. Yeah.

It's a new, that's a new thing for me as I've gotten older. It wasn't a problem when I was in my 20s. I could have been gone for months without a problem. four days feels like a year. Yeah. And I could understand how that would be difficult. It was nice. I think this show was different than obviously all the ones that I've already done before this. But other maybe competition style shows, too, because we got our phones at the end of the night. So I could call Kalin or, you know, I could still be out kind of updated with what's going on with her life.

So at least I was still connected and attached to the home, to my home, I guess. But it's just, you know, you sometimes just want to be there. you one of the things that have always i think fans have admired about you um but also sometimes made fans a little bit sad is that you'd have never like pushed and desired to be on television like fame was never your pursuit in all of this it was a good experience a good story but this puts you back on television again and knowing you and your skill set you will shine on this show and your personality you're good on tv you're fun to watch did being a part of the show make you have a desire to go back on TV again?

I think we all, having done the original shows, kind of always have a desire for going back on TV in whatever capacity it is. Like, I never necessarily didn't want to go back on TV. I just didn't really put the effort into getting back on the TV. That was kind of my point of just saying in like a nicer way. Like, I, I'm a big advocate for letting the universe come to you, I guess. And the show just kind of fell into my lap, which was great. But no, I'll be, I film a new TV show every single year if they asked me to.

So you're glad you did this. I'll tell you after the season's over because I was a real bitch sometimes. And I don't know if it's going to be received well. Oh, goodness. A couple of questions written in from our listeners, really one here. For anyone listening who's intimidated by doing a DIY project at their own home, what advice do you have for them? It's a really good question, Ben, or whoever asked that question, I suppose.

Yeah, I mean, I didn't, I didn't even know how to use like a skill saw until about seven or eight years ago. And I think just like slowly getting more confident with the tools has helped me a lot. Like I remember when I first started to probably like built Kaylin a bench in her apartment in California. And I was like scared I was going to chop all my fingers off the first time I built something, you know? And now it's like I'm not, I'm like using a table saw and the miter saw at the same time, which is obviously super dangerous. but I just think building a confidence, a confidence skill set with your tools is really good. And then when it comes to like our house,

because I've done a lot of renovations in our own home and in my van, and I think the most important thing is to be willing to fail a lot. And I've kind of stopped pursuing perfection a lot too, because at first I held myself so accountable for a perfect product. And I'm just not good enough to ever receive or to get a perfect finish on anything. So I just kind of have started telling Kalin's everything I build has rustic charm to it. You know, it's a little bit easier that way. So if you're thinking about getting into like the DIY stuff and the reason I even got into it in the first place was just because especially in Colorado, like labor is so expensive.

Sure. So if I can save on the labor and just spend a little bit more on the material or the tools or whatever it is, then it's like my girl math brain is doing. I'm like, oh, I saved us $20,000 on this, you know. And that part has been really nice because, you know, you save. money. You learn a new skill. You have fun. And your wife is proud of you most of the time. She's always proud of you. Yeah. Speaking of your wife, as we close up here, give us any updates on you and Caitlin. How have you been doing? How's the relationship? What's going on? Yeah, we're doing good. Thanks for asking. I don't really have much of an update for anyone in any aspect. But I think,

I think things are good. Yeah, you might have to ask her. She might have a different answer, but Bachelor Mansion Takeover premieres on Monday, March 2nd, 8 p.m. Eastern Time on HGTV. Each new episode will be available to stream the next day on HBO Max and Discovery Plus Bachelor Mansion Takeover star Dean Bell. Are you going to watch Ben? I will 100% watch you. If you watch that show and you're really impressed by me, which is, you know, could go either way, would you ever ask me to come and help you with the renovation in your house? Oh, well, I would absolutely love for you to help me with the renovation of my house. What would we do?

We would probably rip out some carpet and lay down some hardwoods. Yeah, that's pretty basic stuff. We could do that even if I'm not good on the show. What were you hoping I said? I know you got a new deck. I kind of wish you let me build your deck. There's the front deck that I definitely need to redo too. Yeah, I could do that.

We could do that together. Yeah. I've, I mean, the idea of doing this alongside of you of HGTV star and me working on my house. and I wouldn't pay you a dime. It sounds so good. All right. Thanks for jumping on, buddy. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

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