The problem with that is the height of the flooring will interfere with your appliances and potentially trap your DW under the counter where you can't remove it. If you put down flooring in the home, the base cabinets MUST be at the finished height of the flooring to not have problems. If you can't uninstall the base cabinets and re-install them on shims or on top of the new flooring, then you need to not do the kitchen at all. Put the wood away in a guest room (NOT attic) until such time as you're ready to rip the kitchen apart.

@GreenDesigns - Right now the flooring in the kitchen is tile and it goes under the cabinets. The flooring company would be removing enough tile under the existing cabinets and the new hardwood flooring would then run a small way under the cabinets. Therefore, we wouldn't run into the problem you are describing.

We aren't interested in tearing out the entire kitchen when it comes time to remodel - we are only replacing the island cabinets and that would most certainly be a larger footprint than the one which exists today.

That should probably work out fine. But still...stash a bunch of extra flooring away anyway.

When you redo flooring in a kitchen without removing cabinets, you are supposed to pull the DW out. Move the DW, change the flooring, and put the DW back in. The floor should run under the DW. If you leave the DW in and butt the new floor up to it, then yes, the DW is now stuck. But that's a terrible quality job.

Any chance you'll change your layout? Any idea what's under the tile? Any desire to re-finish a relatively new floor because you've damaged it in the kitchen remodel? Just askin'

I think the odds are good you will want to change the layout of the kitchen once you have lived there. I would wait just to avoid the possibility of being unnecessary restricted from some awesome idea you have between now and remodeling.

We do plan to take out the dishwasher and completely replace it right away so I would assume that wouldn't be an issue. The layout is really functional and I can't see changing it; however, not having lived in this house yet, I suppose there could be a lightbulb moment and desire to make more significant changes.

DH has been a proponent of holding off on the first floor hardwood until we agree on the kitchen remodel. I guess it doesn't hurt to wait. I just didn't want to go through flooring install / finishing process again when I live in the house already (we just did that this past summer and it wasn't fun).

Thanks for your feedback everyone! I appreciate your thoughts as always.

kcorn, what did you end up doing? We are facing the same issue and it would be helpful to hear other's experience.