‘RHONJ’: Dolores Catania Loves Her Dream Outdoor Kitchen – ‘I Put a Little Italian Flair Into It’ [Exclusive]
Dolores Catania from The Real Housewives of New Jersey may have home renovation PTSD after having to live in a construction zone for a year while ex-husband Frank renovated her home.
Ultimately, the home update was well worth the wait, but it wasn’t without an endless feeling of frustration on her part. “I’m furious with Frank that he couldn’t get it together to finish the house on the move-in date we all agreed upon,” Catania said on the RHONJ Season 12 opener. Adding, “Frank’s priorities are a little off at this moment because he has a new girlfriend in Texas.”
So when it came time to update her backyard, Catania let Frank sit this one out and ended up having an entirely different home update experience. She dished with Showbiz Cheat Sheet about her new backyard and how this time it was very different.
Dolores Catania from ‘RHONJ’ added Italian flair to her new outdoor kitchen
The centerpiece of the backyard is Catania’s new outdoor kitchen. “My backyard kitchen,” she exclaimed. “So my RTA kitchen is amazing. I put a little Italian flair into it because I like to make my Sunday sauce.”
Catania added that she finally got her dream pool too. “Everybody would be over playing outside and I finally got a pool,” she said. “I waited 50 years to put a pool in!”
Catania then joked about who really will be using the pool. “For the dogs, I guess now they can go swimming,” she quipped.
Dolores Catania had some anxiety about creating the design but had a different experience this time
Catania loves how she can make Sunday dinner and still be included in the outdoor fun. “I wanted to be able to cook my Italian Sunday meal and watch everybody enjoy being outside,” she remarked. “There’s a huge burner next to my grill that I can cook my sauce, my pot of sauce. And then it just smells through the whole neighborhood. I mean, I love it so much. So [son] Frankie and all his big man friends come over and sit and eat.”
She described the outdoor kitchen layout. “It’s like a big, huge square. It’s really amazing. It’s a design that was from Germany.”
Catania worked with designers to achieve the right look and feel. “So RTA and Coyote work together. You do a Zoom call and you pick out things,” Catania recalled. “I’m not technically good at this. Like I actually had a little bit of anxiety the night before I had to have this meeting and put my kitchen together.”
“But it was so easy,” she said. “I really felt cool that I was able to do it. I was able to pick out all my own stuff, my design, exactly the way I want it. It’s so custom to me and it’s so efficient that it’s just exactly what I want it for. It’s kind of prefab, but it’s not. It’s custom.”
Dolores said this ‘RHONJ’ home update was on a very different timeline
One of the best parts about the whole experience? Unlike her home renovation, this one took an afternoon to complete. “I think it took a couple of hours. No one in my neighborhood has a kitchen like mine. It’s unbelievable. It’s so efficient. The company is on point. [Boyfriend] Paul [Connell] liked it so much. He put it out in [his] back yard, too.”
Catania loves her kitchen so much, that her design is going up against designs from Mike Pyle from HGTV’s Inside Out and Kevin Lenhart, designer director at Yardzen. Check out each kitchen design and vote at rtaoutdoorliving.com/choose-our-next-design-contest/.
Consumers that pick the winning design will be eligible to win prizes including grills, a pizza oven, and more. Everyone that votes will also receive early access to the new design and exclusive discounts.
