I think he means that if you don't put molding of some sort at the base of the cabs, there will be a gap between where the wood ends and the cabs begin as wood expands and contracts a little with the weather. Same where the floor meets the walls. I'm not sure what you mean by putting in new baseboards after.? Where we have the white baseboard along the walls, we could have quarter round instead, but it wouldn't be my first choice. If he's suggesting quarter round for those walls, I wouldn't let him do it as you'll just have to rip it up to put in proper baseboards. Also, look at this wall where baseboard and quarter round meet. The baseboard went in first and the quarter round is butted up to it. Doing it the quarter round first would have made the baseboard install unnecessarily tricky. Our floor guy didn't do either the baseboards or the quarter round. He did the floor and we did the trim. If you have a GC he could do the trim. You'll want cab trim that matches, so you may have to order it and that takes a while. And, yes, stained trim for the stained cabs and painted for the painted cabs. Baseboard is usually painted a trim color before installation, so that is a whole other job. We also did our floor after all the cabs were in. In our case it was because it turned out that the footprint of the old cabs was larger than the new ones, so we had a 1-2" gap between the flooring and the cabs - not a good look. It works. The other way would be easier, but hey, who needs easy?

We did have what I would consider fairly strong odors...not sure what it was...epoxy? something else? But, I am very sensitive to odors and have asthma that is easily aggravated by odors, so I may not be the person to ask...but if you're also sensitive, then I would be sure to open the windows and doors, if possible...even if it's cool outside. [I'm sensitive enough that if my DH has a beer at lunch, I can still smell it coming from him that night.] If there's grinding to be done to make your slabs fit correctly you may also have a lot of fine granite dust in the air if they don't take precautions to confine it to a small area. All that being said....someone needs to be home for the install to be sure it's done right...and to your satisfaction. They'll be drilling faucet holes, etc. and you may be needed for final placement approval. If you're not there, they'll make the decisions for you and if you don't like it, you may not be able to do anything about it.

It happens all the time. A homeowner will choose a tile or type of flooring and the installer will install it without thinking. Tile and flooring is not something that you can just throw down and make it work and come out even especially on a remodel. Here's why.. You start out with all of the subfloor heights even. You decide to install 1/2" thick wood flooring in all of the rooms but the kitchen. When new the builder compensated for the extra height when they tiled the kitchen. Say for example 1/4" thick tile was used. The builder would add 1/4" thick plywood to raise the floor to where the tile would be even with the wood flooring.. Fast forward.. You come along and decide to redo the kitchen floor with 1/2" tile that calls for a 1/4" underlayment. You now have 3/4" total height to deal with. The old 1/4" tile is removed. Minus 1/4 from 3/4 you have 1/2 left. !/2" will be the difference in height between the old and new. So now you have three choices. Go back and find a tile or flooring type with a thickness that will come out even when fully installed. Rip out all of the old wood flooring throughout the house and start over. Add a transition piece and learn to live with it. Myself I would have did a lot of measuring and after if you wanted to go with the tile you choose. Then I would have added something like a Shur-Trim transition piece under the tile and onto the wood flooring.

In your first photo, it looked like you already had a nice vanity and sink in the room. That's what I would move next to the toilet. There is also a mop sink? Correct? Yes, I would put your washer and dryer, on their pedestals, next to the mop sink. The next wall would get uppers and lowers with a counter, leaving room for laundry baskets and maybe even one of those sorter things. I'm jealous. I have a decent sized laundry room as well, that I share with the furnace...👎 As long as it's already plumbed, I would also keep the toilet, making for a half bath in the house. 👍 Good luck. It will be great.