First of all, I am fully aware that I royally screwed this up. My husband and I built this countertop by joining two slabs of butcher block that we purchased from Home Depot. This was our first attempt at any kind of woodworking, and our first attempt at staining. So, lots of learning curves to navigate. Here is a run down of how we got to the point where there is an uneven stripe across the length of the piece (it looks even worse in person, sadly):

1. After we joined the slabs and the glue finished curing, we a realized there was a slight ridge where the two pieces were joined. The slabs were slightly different widths, so it was unavoidable.

2. I sanded down the ridge, and all seemed well, but after staining I realized I did not get all the glue sanded off. Oops. The glue is unstainable, of course, so this resulted in an ugly line across the length my countertop.

3. I sanded down the glue line with 80 grit, leaving a strip across the counter the width of my orbital sander. It was a success - the glue was removed! - but the stain was also removed, but from that section only. I realize I should have just sanded the whole thing down to match, but I foolishly thought it would all even out after the staining was done.

4. I applied stain to the sanded down section only, thinking I'd then follow up with another coat over the whole thing to even things out.

PROBLEM #1: the second coat of stain did not take at all. I suspect this is was because I tried doing this in an unheated garage when it was about 40 degrees outside. Now, at first I thought I'd just move the counter back inside, let it warm up, and try again at room temperature. However, I also noticed that the sheen of the stain on that strip was off. It's hard to tell from the picture, but there is a definite difference in sheen AND color. So I'm wondering if that is because it was sanded down a little more than the rest, even though I did sand the entire counter with 400 grit before I applied the most recent coat of stain. How do I fix this? I know I could just sand it all down to the wood and start over, but I'm hoping there is a less drastic solution.

PROBLEM #2: When I wipe a dry cloth over the countertop, color from the stain is lifting off. Even though it has had more than a week to dry at this point. Again, I suspect this is because of the cold and it is just taking longer to dry. It gets a little better each day. Is this assumption accurate? What else can I do if I wait and wait and it still does this? Buff? Sand?

PROBLEM #3: I am aware that I need a top coat. Since it is winter and our garage is not heated, I realize that I cannot apply polyurethane in the garage. I already tried a space heater and it was not nearly enough to heat the wood. I have a 3-year-old and I myself am sensitive to all things with chemical smells, so clear-coating it in the house is out of the question. Waiting until spring is also out of the question. The stain we used is food safe and zero VOC. The directions say that they "recommend" a clear coat, but the product is advertised as a "stain and sealer." Assuming I can get this evened out and get the excess stain to stop rubbing off, can I just use it as is? Or is a clear coat absolutely necessary? The company does make a clear coat, but it's back ordered and even though it's zero VOC, the smell is nasty, which is why we moved it out to the garage in the first place.

Okay, so I know this is a lot and I hope my explanations make sense. There's so much to it. I'm hoping someone can give me some practical advice on how to salvage this.