I was thinking the same thing.
My STBX GC husband used to say in any house that wasn't new, and wasn't built by him, that things are going to be off. Part of the skill is creating the illusion that things are perfect. After all, gravity effects us all, not just ladies' faces, boobs and butts!

In my '74 ranch I'm currently cutting out walls behind a bank of cabinets to accommodate a 3/4" difference in the wall. Another area I'm cutting out the ceiling to fit in the cabinets. Cabinets are more valuable than drywall!

Molding (casing) can hide a lot of sins.
I'd definitely make the lines parallel to the countertop.
Oh! Could you do a row of tiles vertically set so interrupt the horizontal line? The eye would notice that first, vs. following the grout along the wall.

Play with that idea?

Oh! Could you do a row of tiles vertically set so interrupt the horizontal line? The eye would notice that first, vs. following the grout along the wall.

Oh, now that is a really good idea. Many brick structures deploy a course of bricks set vertically for decorative or delineative effect. Sometimes this is done to make up for an odd-sized space, like (ta-da!) under a window. You can do the same thing with brick-shaped tiles.

On a 30" span, there will be 15 two-inch-wide vertical tiles. Each one will have to be only 1/30" (about the thickness of 10 sheets of paper) shorter than the next one to cover that discrepancy.

Plan for the walls to be off vertically as well as horizontally...you will most likely need to float the walls quite a bit with thinset to keep the tiles level so you don't have undulating walls.

The vertical tiles are clever but won't work. I have this in my bathroom, setting off the swoop-around-the-window Deco trim. The top of the vertical course still has to be level.

I think changing the backsplash is the best solution, followed by mucking with the sill. Pictures would help, though.

I had the same problem, my house is very crooked and caused major challenges with molding and tiling. We had to play with the trim around the window to mask the problem so that the backsplash tiles could go in level.

pic below of how it turned out below. Sorry for the dishes, don't have a pic yet of that wall since BS finished, other than this one which was part of the kitchen in action photo series!

@babushka - that looks GREAT! I don't see any crookedness at all. How did you play with the trim? Is one end thicker than the other?

I wish I could post pictures but don't have any on me right now. The bottom of the window trim is about 2" from the countertop/sink.......so it is a very small area. At its narrowest, we can fit a single tile perfectly horizontal, however, as you go further to the edge, we can fit a tile and a pencil. We are even thinking of just lining it up against the countertop and just filling the 1/2" gap with grout.

I have the same problem

my contractor installed the window crooked

he has to remove it and reinstall

any suggestions

this is making me crazy

i could cry

Making the trim parallel to the countertop, if it's just a slight taper, would be the way to make it all look even.

"At its narrowest, we can fit a single tile perfectly horizontal,
however, as you go further to the edge, we can fit a tile and a pencil.
We are even thinking of just lining it up against the countertop and
just filling the 1/2" gap with grout."

^^^^ Do that. Most people would look at it and not even see the gap, especially if you paint that tiny bit the same color as the trim (if the grout doesn't match the tile)

It's off by an inch plus some

He said he will rip it out and reinstall the window

I have a headache from all this