Yes, looking through the "It's Friday" thread is helpful. There was also a thread some time back with some photos of black countertops, which I found of particular use as I was very interested in getting black countertops.
http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f8...mica-5779.html
Be sure to pick a Formica brand countertop. You can request decent sized samples from their website, which will really help in your decision. Once we got our countertop narrowed down, we went looking for flooring. We have a local chain of flooring stores that carry a huge inventory of samples - more so than Lowe's or Home Depot. Well worth the time we spent in there. I even took samples of both up to the factory to see how they'd look with the cabinets, which probably isn't an option for you.
For fabric I looked at Sunbrella sample books at a local upholstery and curtain store. Ordered some samples from them, as well as an on-line place. Found one I liked, bought a yard of it off ebay, discovered I really liked it (much better to tell as a yard than a dinko sample from the company) and ordered the rest of my needed yardage directly from Patio Lane. They matched the ebay price, I had enough for free shipping and also got a few bucks more off due to some coupon they had at the time.
You will need to purchase your flooring and fabric yourselves and you won't get a credit for either from ETI. You do pay extra for this option, as well as for the custom countertop. However, you don't have to purchase the countertop yourself, as ETI will order that through Pioneer Building Supply themselves. I've already ordered my flooring through Pioneer and they're holding it for me, even though they knew it would be many, many months before ETI needed it. (They're also holding on to our sink we had them order for us.)
For flooring, you'll want to work with Jackie at Pioneer. She's great to work with and knows her stuff.
Oh, before you fall completely in love with your flooring choice, be sure to check with Jackie to make sure they can get it in. I discovered some things are available in the US but not Canada (such as the faucet we wanted; I ended up getting it through Amazon instead of Pioneer, which was a bummer as it would have cost less from Pioneer). It might also be called something different from their Canadian distributor, so triple check it really is what you want. Whew!