From Flooded Kitchen to Spa Towels How We Upgraded Our Home Experience

First week of the kitchen flood after they took out the bottom cabinets, and the floor. Notice they also took out a big piece of plywood due to mold we had. You could see directly into our basement.

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It was about 5:00 am one morning about 10 years ago.

Our son Michael at the time liked to get up really early for school. He started to head downstairs and heard something. He came in and thought he heard a gas leak. It was loud and constant. Mary Beth and I walked downstairs fortunately to find out it wasn't a gas leak, but it was a dishwasher pipe that burst and flooded our kitchen.

The water was gushing from the pipe. I immediately went downstairs to the basement and shut off the main water supply. We quickly assessed the damage and started to try to move things in the main floor and our basement that were going to be or had been affected. My office was directly below the kitchen but honestly, we didn't have too many physical possessions that were going to be damaged.

We then called the insurance company who called a water remediation company. They sent over 11 people the first day and had 24 dehumidifiers going. Then next day they sent 10 people, tearing up our house piece by piece. Each day for the next 7 days, we had people at our house pulling things up like rugs, floors, kitchen cabinets, and walls. They were also removing some items like my office desk and chair that got ruined in the flood.

During the process, we started to clean out our front hall closet as we were going to get our floor replaced. During that time, we noticed water in the outside wall. This had nothing to do with the original water issue, but it was current and we filed a second claim with the insurance company.

This second claim was from water damage originating from Matthew's bedroom. As they started to pull out the walls, they tore up the rugs too. Because our rugs were the same across the upstairs, we were able to get all new rugs across the entire upstairs.

But that meant one thing, every room in our house, with the exception of the 2 upstairs bathrooms and a 3-season porch we had was torn apart. We had boxes of stuff everywhere we could find an available spot. It was organized chaos everywhere.

The biggest challenge we had was we didn't have a kitchen for 4 months as we had to file and settle on the insurance claim, find a contractor, wait for the contractor to start, wait for the new kitchen cabinets to come in, etc. This definitely tested the patience we had as a family but we made it through.

At the end of the 5 months when everything was done, we had a new kitchen, new floors, and new rugs in every room in our house, except for the 3 rooms mentioned earlier. The few months of paid basically gave us a brand-new house.

Emma testing out our new kitchen cabinets

However, with this brand-new house, we had the two bathrooms that were old and we never liked to begin with.

So a few years later, and after a few larger commission checks, we saved up some money and decided to redo both bathrooms. This is actually the point of the story.

After redoing our bathrooms, where we focused on going a bit upscale, we needed bath towels to match. Basically, we were looking for the feeling of a bath towel you would get at a high-end hotel.

After much research, we upgraded. As with many of you, we didn't start out with upgraded towels. We are on our 4th iteration of towels in 26 years, and these are by far the best.

We now use towels from Boll & Branch. We ordered bath towels, a hand towels, and washcloths. It has been about 4 years since we have been using our towels, and they still feel as soft as they did when we first bought them. Also, for complete honesty, we only ordered the towels for Mary Beth and me. The kids got their towels from Target.

Photo of our Boll & Branch towels

To give you an idea on how these towels have held up, I always fill the washcloth with water and wash my face with it each morning. By cupping my hands, the towel can hold the water for about 10 seconds. Compare that to the ultra-thin washcloths you sometimes get at a hotel that don't hold any water at all, it is a night and day difference.

If you are ready to wrap yourself in a soft, ultra comfortable towel that will last for years, and use it to dry your face with a spa like sensory experience, I highly recommend Boll & Branch. They also have bedding, pillows, and other items that we have yet to explore but I am positive it will give you the same luxury experience.

Are you ready to upgrade to a spa like experience in your own home?

Photo of our shower with a hanging towel

Products We Purchased

For Transparency: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I truly love and use myself.

Here are the specific towels we purchased

BOLL & BRANCH Plush Bath Towel Set

Amazon Boll & Branch store

Cover photo by Fred Kleber