Battle of stucco and stone: Neighbors fighting resident's plan for `medieval castle' of a house
What ho, thou varlet! Let not thy castle spring up in our fair village! (From Sir Fred De Pilot, and also forwarded to me by Beth Young)


In the suburban empire of Ashbury Park, Larry Gies is pushing hard to prove a man's home is his castle -- and much of the kingdom is not amused. Gies, a 62-year-old business owner, wants to renovate his two-story home on Osman Avenue. And Gies has a whole new look in mind for his pale stucco home -- something that breaks from the Conway neighborhood's muted palette of eggshell, off-white and dusty peach. He wants to cover the house in a tannish stone façade; a look that some neighbors say would be fine for a Connecticut farmhouse. But here, they say, the renovation would stick out like an El Camino up on blocks. "I call it the 'medieval castle,' " said Christine Williams, who lives around the corner from Gies. "I think it'll be completely out of place in the neighborhood." The community's architectural review committee and its homeowners association agreed. They rejected Gies' request, saying the stone facing would be too radical of a departure from the rest of the neighborhood.