If the contractor wants to maximize his take home on the bid, and you approve the price will that valve have plastic insides or a nice stainless?  

I buy sets of 6 Kwikset lifetime warrantee deadbolts and locking door knobs, I have plastic boxes that hold all six sets and I rotate them.

In my lower class B stuff, I just do the plastic surrounds.

In the meantime, I bought a $10 plastic bathroom faucet at Menards, and installed it in the kitchen sink, so I could at least have water. 

If you were to install check valve on your sewage line (to prevent back up from the street) would you go with plastic one or more expensive cast iron one ?

Temporarily wrap the crown with plastic material to prevent water leaking because It's cold now so crown rebuild can not be done until weather is right/warm enough4. 

If I was single and living alone, I would definitely consider it but with a live-in gf who recently had back surgery, it' not ideal at the moment.

Thin plastic panels were glued to the wall initially.

There are various types of fences designed to help address intrusion problems, like an L-footer, hard plastic, and other redundant fences.

(Unless you're getting crazy good deals on good quality faucets, that is.)If the existing faucet is good quality (brass internals instead of plastic) then I might consider replacing the cartridge and seals, otherwise, I'd replace the whole faucet.