The floor goes under the cabinets and appliances. As long as the appliances are standard sizes, or the new design accounts for standard sizes for the future replacements, you can keep the old appliances until they break and you want to replace them. But, if you have something non standard like a 40" range, you'd need to replace it with a standard 30" range when you do the cabinets and floors.

When you replace the floor, you need to either:

1. Install the flooring material under the cabinets as well as under the appliances (preferred, IMHO) --or--
2. Install a plywood subfloor at the same height as your finished floor under the cabinets and the flooring material under the appliances.

Either way, you will need to install some sort of floor throughout the kitchen.

As GreenDesigns says, as long as you have standard appliances now and plan to replace them with standard appliances, you should be able to use your current appliances now.

One thing to keep in mind regarding refrigerators: Refrigerators seem to be standardizing on a 36-inch width and close to 72-inch height, so I recommend your refrigerator alcove be at least 37"W x 72"H (37" allows for the width of the refrigerator plus required air clearance).

Be sure the DW and Refrigerator alcoves are at the finished floor height - this is VERY important! You need to be able to move them in/out without damaging your cabinets or counters! If the floor height under the Refrigerator or DW is lower than the finished floor height, they may end up "trapped" in the alcove and will need to be lifted up to be removed - and that might result in damage to cabinets or counters above the appliances.

If that advice is coming from a potential contractor I would say this is a halfassed way of doing the reno as mentioned above and a red flag if you are considering hiring him.

I think you need to understand more about how the floor is constructed. Depending upon the age of the property and how it was originally constructed, you likely have at the very bottom either a cement slab or one by six boards on a diagonal. On top of that there will be a subfloor (appropriate for your bottom floor - I think cement requires a special moisture barrier… sound barrier...but I am not sure… and you must anticipate what the final top floor mftr says it needs in a subfloor for a good final floor application). Then the cabinets are installed leaving space for all the appliances, make sure you can open all cabinet doors. Then you put the final floor in, and then install the appliances. You cannot change the location of the cabinets once they are installed as that will require a new final floor (unless you are increasing the cabinet size/reducing the amount of final floor exposed), but provided you pick standard appliances you should be able to swap them out later although you will have to carefully measure any new appliance (especially if you are swapping a slide in stove). If you are in a historic house with funky floors that you are trying to preserve you really need to understand what that will mean to your planning.

I know many people who had this problem because the new floor was laid right over the old floor, boxing in the DW. Also, I am looking at a floating floor for my new remodel and was told it DOES NOT go under the cabinets like a tile or hardwood floor would. But I was thnking about this and assumed the floating floor would be laid in the opening where the DW, range and refrigerator will go so there would later be no problem replacing them. Just not sure how they trim out the sides without shoe molding while still leaving a gap to allow expansion. That was something I planned to ask about. Would like to hear what the pros say about that.

I just put new flooring down first then reinstalled the old apusnces

Appliances. Sorry lack of sleep over last 2 days

Some flooring cannot go under cabinets (so would be installed like Practigal said above). Some (such as nailed down hardwood, for instance) can go under cabinets. Most (all?) floating floors cant go under cabinets.

The benefit to a flooring that you can run under cabinets is that then the flooring wouldnt need to be patched or replaced down the road if someone changes the layout. Plus, of course, it is easier to install the flooring (fewer cuts). ;-)

Correct, floating floors cannot be installed under cabinets. However, you need to then install a plywood floor under the cabinets at the same height as the finished floor. (I originally used floating floors as an example in my post for option #2, but I must have deleted it during editing!) Then, you install the cabinets, etc.

In the case of a floating floor, you need to do option #2 in my post above.

What about glue-down? Do you know beuhl? I am guessing it depends on the manufacturer...