We had the same problem. I arrived right after the floor had been stained. The crew had left to let the stain dry and it was a Friday night so they were not returning until Monday. I opened the door to the kitchen and was surprised to see globs of un -wiped stain around the island and all around the base cabinets. I remembered I had a roll of paper towels in the car and in my socks I went around every base cabinet and wiped up the extra stain. I then wiped behind my footprints as I exited. I also had numerous swirl marks and even burn marks that did not take stain. I contacted my builder and met with him and the flooring company. The flooring company argued with me and would not correct it before the poly went on. I picked my battles. I knew it was unacceptable but I had so many other problems with my build, I let it go. We had several plumbing leaks on the hardwood before we moved in and I had an independent flooring person give a quote to repair the damage. He mentioned the sloppy sanding and stain job. It bothers me every time I look at my floors in my kitchen and bathroom. I am so glad I wiped up the excess stain as there are some areas I missed and the crew had no intention of correcting it before the poly went on. At least the floors are not a total disaster. Have them correct it.

Keep in mind that some of the "brightness" can be an optical illusion. Optical brighteners only give the illusion of whiter whites and brighter colours. Optical brighteners, optical brightening agents (OBAs), fluorescent brightening agents (FBAs) or fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) are dyes that absorb light in the ultraviolet and violet region (usually 340-370 nm) of the electromagnetic spectrum, and re-emit light in the blue region (typically 420-470 nm. These additives are often used to enhance the appearance of color of fabric and paper, causing a perceived "whitening" effect, making materials look less yellow by increasing the overall amount of blue light reflected. Brighteners are commonly added to laundry detergents to replace whitening agents removed during washing and to make the clothes appear cleaner. Optical brighteners have replaced bluing which was formerly used to produce the same effect. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_brightener) IÂm not for or against using OB, IÂm just pointing this out to you. I use Persil Sensitive Megaperls for my white clothes and they do look very white. I often wonder how clean they are vs. how clean they appear. Also, you mentioned having Restoration Hardware towels (?) Â these are made of high quality Turkish cotton and should not be washed with a detergent that has enzymes or brighteners. You can Google information on how to care for quality cotton linens. Despite what some on the forum will tell you, the manufacturers also say never to use fabric softener on them (this can ruin the towel fibers). I launder all my sheets/towels with a mild detergent (currently Vaska as I love the Lavender smell) and use a small amount of vinegar in the rinse. I also use an Oxy bleach agent on the white ones (I have the Vaska and others I use). All mine look white and smell lovely. I have a 9 yr old FL. Just as an FYI, Vaska is used to launder linens for 150 hotels throughout Northern California including the the Joie de Vivre group, Kimpton Hotels, the Fairmont and the Ritz Carleton. (http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/Commercial-Laundry-Chooses-VASKAs-Green-Cleaning-Solutions) Here is a link that might be useful: caring for your linen

Hi repaintingagain, I promised an update. Bottom line: our absolute black leathered/antiqued counters will require a lot more care than I was led to believe, I hate them because of this because I am so not the type to patrol the countertops-that's why I sensibly talked myself into them and out of what I thought were higher maintenance materials (marble and soapstone.) So, the expert came out (kind/knowledgeable/professional) and basically there is a choice between the lesser of two evils: 1) leave unsealed and have to deal with darker fingerprints/oil spots darkening the counters (much like what I was trying to avoid with unoiled soapstone) or 2) use an enhancing sealer that helps to minimize/mask darker oil marks BUT the sealer still etches from acidic substances which show up as lighter/hazy marks on the granite (much like I was trying to avoid with marble, and what you have going on with your countertops, repaintingagain.) As we suspected, expert guy used acetone to strip off all the previous sealer, and then the counters looked mostly fine until people started resting their hands on it and it looked splotchy/dirty again. So we had him put an enhancing sealer on one area (we left the rest unsealed) and he gave us the weekend to conduct various "mess tests" on the different finishes to see what looked/cleaned up best. (we used ketchup, olive oil, and a lemon wedge.) The enhancing sealer (Dupont Stonetech product) did NOT make the counters wet/shiny as I feared/was originally told. The color difference was slight, not dramatic, but enough to help minimize the oil spots/look of darker stains. We left half a lemon wedge on the color enhanced countertop with a round circle of ketchup next to it for 15 minutes and both left lightened/hazy/etched looking areas that could not be cleaned up with dishsoap and water (repaintingagain, these spots looked like the spots on your counters.) The olive oil cleaned up well and fingerprints did not show. On the unsealed side, the lemon wedge and ketchup left for 15 minutes cleaned up well and I was so excited, but the olive oil left a splotchy blotchy darker mess that could not be cleaned up with dishsoap and water and fingerprints were a problem. (This is NOT to say that a stronger "grease cutter" product might not have worked-I don't know-we were just using some regular Joy dishsoap) Since we have young kids who will be leaving little fingerprints everywhere, we opted to use the enhancing sealer, (because they eliminated the dirty fingerprints look) and we're figuring we are just going to have to be extremely careful not to slop any acidic substances on the counters. (Again, we are not naturally neat/tidy folks, so this is extremely disappointing.) Confession: My 4 year old saw me crying over the counters and said "Mommy, what is wrong???" with such fear on his face that I felt just awful. So having to explain and reassure him that everything is fine, these are just counters was a good reality check for me. But I am deeply, deeply disappointed to have wasted hundreds of hours of my life researching countertops-not to mention thousands of dollars- to be stuck with countertops that don't meet my expectations for the next 30+ years. My husband feels terrible for me that I'm blaming myself for making a "bad" decision and has committed to periodically just stripping the enhancing sealer all off and reapplying when our etching gets too bad/the counters look too dirty. He likened it to power washing the deck periodically, just a part of the maintenance of the item. Which did help me feel better. I just didn't know we'd have to deal with this, so since we do, I wish either 1) I would have put in a harder soapstone (Original P.A. was the hardest we personally tested, but I understand Julia and Belvedere are two that perform similarly. I'm sure there are others too) or 2) that we would have selected the antiqued/leathered Virginia Mist/Jet Mist (around here it was renamed "Nebula") because at least the veins/movement would help to mask both the oil spots or the etching (depending on whether we'd left it unsealed or sealed.) repaintingagain, I did want to tell you that you/your husband could certainly strip off your sealer with acetone and start fresh and experiment with whether you want to leave your counters unsealed or seal with a regular or color enhancing sealer. Our guy did it with his bare hands and a cloth, I was in the room and the odor wasn't bad with any of the products and I'm fairly sensitive to smells/chemicals. For any lurkers who've read this far, I hope my experience helps someone else. Interestingly, we have gotten lots of compliments from some of the subs that are coming in at the end of the project finishing up details saying how cool our counters are and how great they look in the kitchen etc. Absolute black leathered/antiqued could be the perfect quiet, non shiny, non busy countertops for someone who is prepared to accept their maintenance as part of life. I wasn't and in the end our satisfaction with things are really just a result of how well the result meshes with our expectations.

@Brenda Hagel do you mind me asking what the cost of your countertop was? My kitchen looks like a similar size (maybe a bit bigger), and I love the look of the Calacutta Marble but am worried it will be considerably more expensive than a regular Formica laminate. Does anyone know the difference in cost between regular laminate and the 180fx series? Is the 180fx still a high pressure laminate? Thanks for your help. P.S. I am in Canada, so please specify if talking about USD or CAD, thanks!