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?

Thanks for posting a photo, that really helps. With your kitchen being u-shape and smaller in size I would avoid very much pattern in your stone, it will look very busy. A light color like Colonial White will make the kitchen appear bigger. Since you have very little natural light you may want to avoid dark colors. I think granite or quartz are both fine as long as you like the look of the stone. "Heavy" or "Light" is more about the pattern and color not the type of stone. I just re-did my kitchen and it is very helpful to go to a local stone yard in person and look at the full slabs of stone before making a final decision. Even if you don't buy from them, you can get a better idea of the choices. The stone can look very different from the small samples in a showroom. I did this and ended up going in a totally different direction for my kitchen counters, different stone type and color. SO glad I did this! Be sure to take a sample of your paint, cabinet, backsplash and flooring (if you can).

You should be able to find a rug that works with both the floors and furniture once you've moved in. Don't worry until you have everything in your space. Look for a neutral to warm white for the walls - nothing gray. See if the owners can tell you what color is on the baseboards and doors currently. You could use that same color for the walls or one just slightly more saturated. You'll need to try the samples in your light, up against the floors. Wait on the cabinet color until after you've painted all the walls because right now the red will skew anything you look at. I can see a muted green or taupe on the cabinets with your granite.

I like the chairs. but I'd get them sprayed in a lighter teal color. I think that would look great. for the fabric on the seats, bring in the mustard or gold. Or, since you have the blue and pink in the art, go w/the pink color instead of the gold This material would be perfect w/the wall and the table. and works w/the reddish tones of the wood. you may be able to keep your chairs as is if you did this on the seat. or just paint them white https://www.perigold.com/decor/pdp/rm-coco-suite-queens-garden-fabric-rcoc3819.html spray the chairs a robin egg blue and add this material. stunning. bring in a white rug you can lacquer them or use a good spray. Valspar has some nice colors in their spray. I actually combined those exact two colors with a dresser I did. this teal was more blue than yours, but the robins egg would work w/your colors There is also a place that will put any color in a spray can for you. Amy Howard has lacquer in a can, but to do all of those wouldn't be cheap! After spraying, I'd redo the seats. those are actually really easy to do yourself. just go find some fabric of course you could always buy new chairs.