The Swedish have a nice expression for something that looks like shit. Det ser förjävligt ut.

That’s the expression I want to use now. I painted 1.5 walls of the cabin, and they look förjävligt. The thing is, I’m not using conventional paint. I use iron sulphate powder which is mixed with water and then it can be either painted or sprayed on timber. Using the spray canister is tricky for beginners and the first recommendation was to use a brush instead. But then I had a second opinion and they said that spraying isn’t that difficult. So I borrowed their spray canister and got to work. At first I didn’t pump enough pressure in the canister so I didn’t get a good spray, which meant that I had to spray several layers which is exactly the opposite of what you should do with this substance. It gets darker by time, and the more you use it, the darker it gets… so I reckon that first spot I sprayed is gonna be pitch black in a few years.

Once I understood how much pressure needs to be pumped, it got a bit better. Marginally. But I still struggled, and the spray wasn’t nearly as even as it should be even with high pressure so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I started from the back wall, optimistically thinking that I would figure it out so I could do a good job with the side walls and most importantly, the front wall. I didn’t.

I should’ve stopped there but I had some paint left in the canister so I started spraying one of the side walls.

Det ser förjävligt ut.

I gave up, took a shower to wash away the spray drops on my face and the sweat and the mosquito bites and a general feeling of defeat.

I’ll use the brush tomorrow on the back corners and see if it’s better like that.

It’s just that you can’t paint over the mistakes. Like I said, if you add a layer it just gets darker. This stuff is going to last a 100 years and I’m a rank amateur and that’s what those walls look like. Like they were done by a rank amateur. Förjävligt.

Times like this it sucks to be alone and having to do everything by myself. Clueless. But I’ll try to be positive. By the time the cabin is painted, I’ll tell myself that the zebra pattern adds character to the cabin and I’ll be proud I did it myself. I just have to give up any hopes of ever selling the cabin, when everyone else thinks, förjävligt…

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Posting a picture of the paintjob would be too embarrassing so I give one from the Lövörgraven trip, hopefully less förjävlig than my cabin walls.