Daz -
The house isn't as skinny as it looks. The skinny part is the stair between levels. It extends out from the main massing of the house but that isn't apparent in the pic. We call it the 'skinny house' ourselves because that aspect of it was intentional. In order to better fit into the neighborhood which has some much larger houses I maximized the width of the house as much as possible and the stair is a major expression of that. The stair part is about nine feet 'thick' while the rest of the upstairs area is about 22 feet 'thick'. Being 22 feet thick means that from the street it is possible to see through the house. That is, folks walking down the street can discern that there are lots of windows on the back side. I wanted the house to express our lifestyle. If I'm asked what style it is I usually say "beach house" as that is also expressive of a laidback lifestyle. The house isn't on the beach but has a panoramic waterview. We can see water from every window in the house. I'm really glad we did the large upper level deck on the front of the house. I can hardly wait for summer to start using it again. (We still have great piles of snow here).

Regards, Ross