I hate cleaning the gas stove-top and would love to have a ceramic one. It wipes clean so easily, no need to move the metal parts.

Probably not what you want to hear but we hired an interior designer and it has turned out to be a godsend. I don't know crap about countertops, or anything else house related and she has BTDT, speaks to all the manufacturers / stores, screens samples of what she thinks we might like, then brings us the contenders. It is a major time saver and so far very much worth the money.

My dream kitchen is going to have soapstone counters with honed edges so that I don't get so many of those tiny holes in my tee shirts.

I find wood floors and white cabinets easy to clean, as long as they are well-sealed and smooth. Bead board and mouldings are definite no-nos.

I remodeled recently and replaced our countertops and backsplash with a quartz that looks like marble with big veining. It's fantastic and cleans with windex.

Quartz is very durable but if you like the look of real stone, Quartizite looks very much like marble but is much less finicky.

As for flooring, they make wood look vinyl flooring that is waterproof and very easy to clean. It never looks or feels like real wood to me but I'm very picky about these things.

Not sure why your white cabinets don't look clean.

I'm a designer and second this. Quartz is definitely the most durable.

Though so is granite, so I'm not sure what the issue is with your current countertops, other than that they might look dated.

in terms of countertops, I've found quartz to be the easiest to maintain (silestone, ceasarstone, etc.)