Well, we survived without a range top for a month and a half (Nov and Dec). Pizza, salad, instant noodles, slow cooked soup, rice, microwaved / baked food, and loop. We do have a counter top though where other small appliances sit on it. Sorry for I cannot help much with the questions.

I'm puzzled as to why they would not install without the counters in? With a freestanding range, it just sits there, independent of the countertops. But I'm equally as puzzled by the fabricator not wanting to template without the range installed? As long as he leaves the 36" (or whatever size range you have) clear between the opening, square and level, what's the issue?
As for the range working with a standard 36" high counter, I can say my counters are 36-3/8" high, and my Blustar legs are cranked up, and could easily be let down.
As I recall, Bluestar specs call for the range to sit 11/16" above the counter, so you should be fine @ 36" and be able to leave the legs on. Chris

I am with Chris on the height. My recollection was that the BS had to sit at least a certain distance above the counters, so I don't see how they can be too short. You might want to check the installation instructions. As to who goes last, when you say Bluestar, I assume it was actually an installer affiliated with the store that sold you the stove. It is not uncommon that every subcontractor wants to go last. The stove installers probably installed a range in another house not all that long ago, and the countertop guys came along later and damaged it and the customer demanded the appliance guys fix the stove, saying it was damaged when it was installed, but the damage wasn't noticed. As a result, the appliance installers decided to adopt a policy of waiting until the counters are installed before they install the stove. I agree with Chris, the countertop guys definitely need the cabinets installed to do the templates, but no way they need the stove, it is free standing, they just need to allow the space called for in the BS instructions.

Agreed, counter top templating w/out the range s/b a non-issue, not sure what they're worried about. My BS was actually installed by the builder/contractor. It took longer to finish the house than anticipated so all my appliances sat in the garage until the cabs and counter tops were installed. I set it up myself, not hard if you have a long handled skinny flat head driver however it took 4 big guys to carry it up the stairs to the kitchen and put it in the hole. Those things are tanks.

Thanks for all your info. I have no idea why the countertop fabricator wants the range installed for templating. My contractor is going to push for templating without the range, which from your comments seems just fine to do.

And the installer was an actual BS installer, not from our appliance store, which is why both issues that arose seem so weird. I paid for BS to install it b/c I know the range weighs a ton, they do this all the time, and I didn't want to chance having anything go wrong during delivery or install and have it be due to a third party. Maybe I got some new installers who don't know what normal counter height is? Or that counters shouldn't matter for install? At least imo they shouldn't.

Anyway, thanks again. I'm going to call BS about both of these issues just to clarify things. I'd love to get BS to install w/o counters b/c I'd like my range installed asap!

I wanted to add that I did call BS. And they don't have any policy about installing their ranges without countertops. I also learned (so I was wrong) that they don't have specific installers, so the installers must be ones from the appliance store where I purchased my range. It's too early here on the west coast to call my appliance store to deal with the install situation, but I plan to in a couple of hours.