Doan Chung-Hernandez

In March of 2006 Ray and I moved to Oakland California from Vacaville. We had only lived in Vacaville for 3 months before we realized the commute was killing us. I would drop him off at work, drive back home and then drive back to the bay area and pick him up, a total of a 4 hour commute, without traffic each day. Anyhow, while looking for a place to live in the bay area we stumbled upon this building. It was an old warehouse that use to be a French Fry Factory. I would of never, ever, ever, even considered living in here, but Ray, well, lets just say he has more vision than I most do. At first I thought it was asinine, I mean have you guys seen the photo above? But I have always been one to just go with the flow, and Ray is what I like to call a hopeless visionary.

But you got to admit, it totally has potential. Even I could admit that. But again, did you see the photo above? It was taken through a hole in the front door. The building was 8000 sq ft. Uh, no that’s not a misprint, there was not an extra 0 put in by accident. Yes, we lived, worked, renovated, bled, sweat, cried and even threw a few parties in an 8000 sq ft building for an entire year. Crazy kids, I’m sure that’s what everyone was thinking.

The pile of trash we had hauled away almost reached the second floor.

It even had two walk in refrigerators, one of which I was planning on turning into my walk in closet.

We flew dad down because there was no way we could of done all this work without him.

We put a lot of work into this building. In the beginning it was scary, but I got over it and soon it was as though the Universe had answered our dreams, but with a little sacrifice and hard work on our part. Ray had always dreamed of renting out a huge warehouse that had a urinal from a rich old man that gave him a super cheap deal and turning it into his modern urban living dream. Yes, our warehouse even had a urinal. And I had always wanted to have my own massage business, with 4 rooms, one for myself and the other 3 I would hire or rent out to other massage therapist. The front of the building on the second floor had 4 rooms. The more we thought about it the more uncanny and perfect it seemed.

But soon, life just took a toll. Ray detested work and the more he saw his boss the more he loathed him. I was getting burnt out on massage. What once was filled with passion and energy fizzled and soon I felt like a well paid slave. Ray and I decided to call it quits and tackle yet another dream of mine, to live in Hawaii. Somehow, this dream seemed so much less painful and stressful. We had a 3 year lease so we took on the role as property managers and sublet the building for the remainder 2 years of our lease and for over twice what we paid, split the rent with Mel, the nice old man Ray dreamt to life, every month and started a new chapter of our lives in Oahu Hawaii.

Hawaii was a totally awesome experience. Every month we used the money we made from the building to pay off the debt we put into it. I’d like to say it was easy but it wasn’t. I can say it was a huge learning experience. This last trip to California was to find a way to come to an agreement with Kevin, the man we rented the building out to. He ended up subletting the building to Raphael, a total pathetic douche bag that couldn’t pay rent on time to save his life and couldn’t move out when asked to leave. But our main concern for coming out to Cali was to make sure we uphold our contract with Mel and leave on good terms with him. When we got to the building it was in shambles. All the hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and money we put into it seemed wasted. Did I mentioned that Raphael had secretly turned the building into an illegal club/bar he called the Radiance Factory. Just a word of advice for Raphael, it’s not smart to advertise an illegal club. Fucking retard.

Here’s a before us and after us photo.

And after then after we did more work and started to settled in. In the very back behind the glass windows is where where the 4 massage rooms laid.

From the opposite direction. Ray loved his pool table.

A closer look further back. To the left was our bed room, middle was Ray’s desk and to the far right was our closet.

A better view of our closet. I had a lot more shoes back then.

Our living room in it’s earlier stage.

The kitchen area and dining area. Ray and I built that wobbly table one night when we had nothing better to do. He swears one day he’ll redeem himself.

Here’s what the building looked like on our last visit.

Looks like they built a kitchen room.

We turned this room into my workout/yoga room.

This is what it looks like by the time we were done with it.

And this is how it looks now.

This was suppose to eventually be a massage room #4, but in the mean time we just made it a guest room and it was also Chris Miller’s room when he stayed with us.

And this is how it looks now.

A before and after of Massage Room #3.

Same room, present day.

Before and after of Massage Room #2.

Massage Room #2 today.

My Massage Room before.

My beautiful massage room after. I actually worked countless hours in this room. It was the perfect massage room.

And this is how it looks like now.

A few before and afters of the lobby we fixed up. We were planning on getting more furniture to fill it up but I think we did a pretty spectacular job.

And here it is today. Animals.

We took back our blinds.

A before and after of the mens restroom. Behind the wall next to the sink was where the men’s urinal was. I forgot to take an aftermath photo but it’s probably for the best because it was bad.

They badly built what looks like lounge rooms downstairs. But the whole are downstairs area was pretty muck a junk yard.

Oh, our mistletoe was still hanging up. I bet it launched a lot of kisses.

I’ll never forget the day we lifted the super industrial air condition unit up on the rooftop. It was insanely crazy and scary. We had to set it on top of a shit ton of pallets in order for Ray and his dad to reach it. Ray had originally wanted to tie the heavy unit to a rope and pull it up. That made no fucking sense to me so I walked over to the Chinese produce factory and asked if they would help us out with their fork lift. It took some per swaying but my charm won in the end.

There were more pallets than what you see here. Trust me, people came out of their buildings to watch. It was totally wobbly and insanely scary.

Oh course it wasn’t only us that sweat for this building,

we put our loved ones to work too.

Kola did a lot of supervising.

Of course it wasn’t all hard work. I miss our parties

Drinking wine on the rooftop.

Having friends over to play pool. Hell, I miss having friends.

I even miss the skaters.

It was definitely an experience. But I gotta tell ya, I’m so glad it’s over.

The End.

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On our way to California Ray and I are contemplating places we have to go or see before we head back to Texas. The sad part is that the only thing that crosses our minds is Nara, the most delrishious sushi restaurant in all of San Francisco. I guess when one has seen and done all that there is to do the only thing left is to eat.
Earlier that day we met up with Todd at an internet cafe. He’s just a happy go lucky guy so it’s always a treat to see him.

It was definitely a nice surprise to see Robin as well because we weren’t so sure if she would be able to make it because Beau had mentioned that she had some prior arrangements to attend but I think she might have broke them on our account. If so, thank you very much Robin. It is always a pleasure to see you.

After dinner we took our full bellies on a walk to The Tavern. It happens to be the place where Ray husseled himself a date with me and the place where Bea and Robin met. Many fond memories were made at The Tavern. You should go there and make some right now.

Evan and Beau wait their turn on the pool table.

Marci didn’t make it to sushi but she did meet up with us later on and she brought a friend and he’s a lot older than us, but very nice.

BFF’s forever.

Just for old time sakes we went to Pizza Pino at the end of the night. Still taste so good after a few beers.

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Ray and I had originally planned on getting marry at night. I mean we wanted to kiss under the moon light because, well it’s romantic and no one does that. But the more I planned the more I realize it wasn’t practical which is why no one does it. Everyone would starve because dinner wouldn’t be till like midnight and the staff and caterers would be working super late. So we pushed the wedding as late as we could, around 8 or so, and just decided to play on the 080808 theme and have me walk down the isle at 8:08. Anyhow, I know it’s almost a month later, but here’s a compilation of the photos that were taken during the ceremony.

Ray and our Reverend Jack

The flower girl was my niece Sianna. Hey, Amet just got here, glad you could make it.

Walking down the isle with my mother, it was so hard not to cry.

I think it was Ray’s dad that started the stream of tears, then Ray, then my sisters, then my mother then Jackie and then me. I didn’t look at the audience but I’m sure everyone was crying by now.

I knew I wasn’t going to be the only one crying so I had some tissue tucked between my titties ready for him

Selena and Kola, Lana’s always ready to take a picture.

My sisters look so tan.

It looks like we planned to get married at sunset.

I look so in love.

Our audience.

I Ray Hernandez of Mesquite Texas . . .

I was wearing some bright ass nail polish

You may now kiss the bride

We are the Champions

And that was our ceremony. Stay tuned for more photos to come.

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What a great day. When I think about the day I got married I can’t help but to smile really big. It’s the way every wedding should be: stress free, surrounded people you love, lots of good food and alcohol always helps.

There was some last minute shopping I had to get done, like flowers. Bea, Jackie and I went out in search of fresh flowers. After hitting up a few places and 3 hundred dollars later we came back with butt loads of flowers and some other random items we had on our list.

To my delight I came back to see my sister’s and mother had been hard at work doing what they do best, cook.

Chris and Pops fired up the grill.

I got in my bikini and joined the party.

How adorable do my sisters, mom and I look here?

Good times in the pool.

Jackie made her infamous jungle juice.

With my girls.

Kuya Ben’s a perve.

Gay boys like to ride each other in the pool.

I love my little sis.

Group photo.

Synchronizing pools jumping should be an Olympic event.

Kola roamed around.

Is this the gayest photo or what? Guav is in a bikini and in the back it looks like Coop is giving Ray a flower. I hope this photo comes back to haunt them one day.

Mom, Robin, Pops, Beau

Steve and his awesome wife, Nycole.

Kimmy, baby, and husband, Coop.

Chris and Marci.

Stuffing our faces.

As you can tell, it was a pretty awesome day and it was only going to get better. I love weddings, especially mine.

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