Oil is a perfectly fine countertop finish, if, as you said, you don’t chop directly on it. We have a traditional butcher block island counter top that we oil occasionally (every 6 months or so) and its held up just fine to daily use as a counter top, not as a chopping surface.

The nice thing about oil is that you can easily sand or even steam out dings and dents and just oil those areas and get a great consistent finish.

Some showers also have a pressure valve along with the shower cartridge. Getting no water is a sigh of a failed cartridge, no hot water can be the pressure valve valve.