..our floor needs floated because of previous floats.

what does that mean? ^

1/2" won't be a big deal, as long as your appliances will still be flush w/the countertop.

Beth, we are going to pour over the specs tomorrow with the contractor. My husband and I really think the dishwasher will be too short. It raises to 35" and the cabinet is 35.25 (before counter). Contractor says they will mount wood to attach to, but I don't want more than what a normal gap would be between the quartz and the top of dishwasher. MY friend has her dishwasher like that, and I can see the controls that are on the inside of top of door. I don't want that. Not sure what options there are to raise it a tad.

Funny that you would mention this. We intentionally raised all of our counters by 2". It feels so much more comfortable. But then, everybody in our family is pretty tall. So, standard-height counters always felt really annoying.

2" is enough that some of the cabinets and appliances needed a little more attention to make things work. But it's all pretty straightforward, and a good contractor should not have any difficulties with a mere half inch.

you could install tile (or anything sturdy to raise it) under the dishwasher to raise it to the proper height.

how did they screw up the height?

Beth, The tile floor is going to be floated up to bottom of cabinet, but hoping not to have to float higher in that area, as then there would be a lip up to the dishwasher. And not sure how it got messed up. It was on the drawing as 35-1/4". And I didn't catch that that would put us slightly over standard. But my guess is that the cabinetmaker thought we were doing 2 cm counters, which would make us end up at 36. So now they are willing to remove and lower, but gosh I hate that. But we have to decide if we will hate it now but be glad we had them do it. Or do we just say ehhh, it's not so bad.

Like M, we raised all of our counters intentionally (by 3".) Much more comfortable for us, and I doubt that you'd notice the extra 1/2" unless a standard height counter feels too tall for you.

re: the DW, ours sits on a small wooden platform built by our cabinet makers to the right height. There's a piece of toe kick trim in front of the platform so that it blends with the other cabinets. Maybe you could do something similar to raise up the DW.

We didn't have to do anything with a range, as we have a separate oven and cooktop.

I would have them lowered to standard, not question.

Mine are 37 inches, I wanted that. They put the DW atop the toe kick. My range is also even with the countertop. Looks fine.

Lower to standard. These "fixes" will be a constant problem. Just get it right now.

36" is a compromise that works for a large part of the population. After all, tall people can bend down, but shorter people can't easily get taller. Of course, the downside is that tall people find their backs hurt whenever they work in "standard" kitchens. That's why you hear from all the homeowners who decided to raise their counters by a few inches.

Since @Ellen said that she doesn't suffer from the problem of being too tall for her kitchen. So, there would be a good argument made to lower it to 36". On the other hand, another 1/4" higher than standard is barely noticeable. So, it might not be worth the hassle, when there are perfectly good solutions to adjust the appliances. This is a relatively common problem that contractors have to do deal with all the time.

And that's ultimately what I would suggest doing. Defer to the expertise of your contractor. No matter what you decide to do, I bet than 6 months from now, I won't be able to tell the difference.

"we may have to fiddle with the dishwasher, as the leveling legs only take us up to 35..."

You may not have to to do that. The dishwasher* has a bracket which attaches to the underside of the countertop to keep it from moving around. If the dishwasher is too low, just attach a piece of plywood to the underside of the countertop and then attach the dishwasher's bracket to that. Recess the front edge of the plywood so that it is not visible under the edge of the countertop.

*Using Whirlpool as an example.

"The dishwasher* has a bracket which attaches to the underside of the countertop to keep it from moving around."

Modern dishwashers are fastened through their sides into adjacent cabinets/panels. Attaching tabs to countertops to keep the dishwasher from tipping is old school and obsolete. Engineered stone manufacturers prohibit drilling and installing mechanical fasteners and the non-drill adhesive type rarely work for long.

Our counters are two inches taller as well. There were zero problems witn appliances.

"The dishwasher* has a bracket which attaches to the underside of the countertop to keep it from moving around."

"Attaching tabs to countertops to keep the dishwasher from tipping is old school and obsolete."

The Whirlpool Corporation (Whirlpool, Kitchenaid, Maytag, Amana) will be glad to learn this. It specifies the countertop attachment unless the the counter material is "marble, granite, or another hard surface".

I'm short, so I'd have them fix the cabinets. Even half an inch matters for comfort if you do a lot of cooking.