Proletariat 1, Bourgeoisie 0

One Silver Spring resident scores a castle while another can't even give one away, says this week's Gazette.

Phyllis Johnson, of Michigan Avenue, gets a new "Katrina" prefab cottage (model, left) to replace her current digs, which The Gazette describes as trashed beyond repair. Johnson, who is disabled and unemployed, receives the 1,200-square foot house through a county program in cahoots with USA Weekend magazine and the Congress for the New Urbanism.

The cottage, named after that 2005 hell raiser, is on display at the Gwendolyn Coffield Community Center in Lyttonsville. It will be relocated to Johnson's property once her existing home is demolished.

Just up the block--way up, at Martello Drive off Old Columbia Pike--Brian Colella is trying to unload his 15,000-square foot mansion (right). The 52-year-old entrepreneur modelled the place after English castles and included a moat, The Gazette writes. Asking price: $3.4 million.

"He overbuilt for the neighborhood," Santiago Testa, a Chevy Chase realtor, tells The Gazette. "I think he's going to be sitting on it for a while."

The home has been on the market for nearly a year and a half. It's also available through an EBay auction.

Thanks to Slate.com and EBay for the photos.

" 'Katrina Cottage' To Be Resident's New Home" (The Gazette)
"For Sale: Castle With Moat" (The Gazette)