Man paints house in color that irks neighbors

AVONDALE ESTATES, Ga. -- Stan Pike's protest against the city is green with polka dots.

After the Avondale Estates Historic Preservation Commission rejected Pike's plan to add a rounded front stoop to a house he's renovating, he called two painters Wednesday to paint the front of his house lime green, with large, purple polka dots.

The home sticks out in the historical neighborhood.

"It's certainly making a point," neighbor Karen Horace said. She added that the six-person commission "does have a reputation for being a little difficult sometimes."

Pike doesn't plan to stop at dots. Scattering old toilets filled with geraniums tops his to-do list.

Meanwhile, City Manager Warren Hutmacher and his staff are searching for a city code that would force Pike to repaint his house a more neutral color, but they've had no luck.

"We haven't been able to find anything in the code as of yet that would dictate what color people can't paint their houses," Hutmacher said Thursday.--From wire reports