What to Expect when Living in a Shop in the Winter

My family and I are building a house and we are all very excited about it! We expected to be moved into our lovely new abode by Thanksgiving. Christmas at least! But (sigh) God had other plans. For reasons I will not bore you with, after six months the house has its walls and windows . . . that's all. During that entire time, we have been living in a well drilling shop in trailers. And it's winter. In Eastern Oregon. (Just to let you know, winters here are crazy. One week there's no snow and its a nice warm forty degrees and the next, there's black ice everywhere as it snows all day long and the nights are in the teens or single digits.)
Now, if you ever want to build a house during the winter and live in a shop, here are some things to expect:

• Driers let off hot air. In a shop, the air kicks up the dirt and smokes up the place. Solution: Put a tube from the hot air opening, under the shop door, and to the outside. Problem solved!
• One office bathroom means a lot of traffic. Become comfortable with each other. If the toilet area is not private, that's an easy fix! Set up a five foot tall, one inch wide cardboard box and just put it between the toilet user and the others in the bathroom.
• Have a nice, big coat to take with you everywhere. In a shop to big to heat, it's chilly between trailers, bathroom, and everywhere in between. Just slip on a coat wherever you go and you'll be just dandy!
• Expect water to taste like sulfur.
• Did you know trailers slowly move on their own? They do so don't put one close to a wall because, after a while, the once wide walkways becomes a narrow tunnel.
• Pipes freeze in the winter, so don't expect to use the trailer's sinks or toilet. You could, however, if a large pot is set under the trailer where items can drain. Be sure to empty it on a regular basis.
• Because the pipes are frozen, dishes become a problem. No worries! Simply buy a dishwasher on wheels to set up in the shop. Load up all the dishes from the trailer and take outside to the shop's sink. After a complete rinsing in thirty degree weather, load up the dishwasher. Then, wheel the dishwasher up to the sink, plug it into the wall, and hook the dishwasher's water system into the sink. Those dishes will be set!
• Expect the cold weather to freeze the ground and prevent any progress to be done on the house your building. 
• Your belongings will be lost in a chaotic maze of boxes, furniture, and random stuff. If you don't know where something small is, like a picture, a CD, or shoes, forget about it. Its in its box, somewhere amid all the other identical boxes. Don't stress though. You'll just find everything again when you move into the house . . . hopefully.
• Expect your neighbor's chickens to get into the shop. Oh, and if they have a donkey expect a lot of loud, sporadic heeeehawwwws!
• Get creative. If there's room on the pantry shelves, give the space a double purpose; half the shelves for food and the other half for shoes.
• Expect to view heat as gold, a stove as an oasis, a speaceheater as a lost treasure, and a pare of nice wool socks something never to negotiate.
• Above all, expect difficulty. My family is strong, yet, honestly, this is hard. Most days we're alright and others we'd love to burn the shop down. Expect to be mad at everything, but nothing in particular. Expect sadness and envy of people living in a house. But expect God's hand to come and comfort. Expect your character to grow in strength and trust in God. Expect to appreciate the small things in life. Expect to be humbled. Expect to let go and fall into God's strong arms. He is faithful and there's security in that. 
• Oh, yeah, one last thing. Expect to never want to go camping ever again!

Do you have a trailer/camping experience to share?