My concern centers more around the practicality of living with windows that low and how cleaning may be more difficult or more frequent being next to the countertops. I don’t know about window replacement and countertops, but we have had many windows fail in our six year old home (they’re under warranty, so are waiting to hear from manufacturer on replacement/repair). In cases where I’ve had windows repaired, I wouldn’t think that countertops would need to be removed - they just replaced the glass.

New construction windows are installed from the outside. The majority of new windows last a couple decades by which point the kitchen will be ‘dated’ anyhow.

Yes, they will be a pain to clean but I just love the look. I may hate myself in a few years though!

I have them in my bathroom and my kitchen. They aren’t that hard to keep clean.

I have a counter-height window in my Kitchen. It's a bay. They aren't that difficult to keep clean and we don't have any issues with splashing. However, our bay is approx 18" deep.

I highly recommend bumping out the window by 6 or 7 inches to give you more room.

If you raise the window, then you will need to be careful what faucet you get and/or how deep (front-to-back) the sink is. Raised windows with a sill often interfere with faucets b/c they can potentially limit the range of motion of the handles.

Case in point -- at our OBX rental this summer, we could not turn the hot water on fully in the Kitchen sink b/c the sill blocked the ability of the handle to move back far enough. (They could have solved the issue if they rotated the stem and put the handle in the front instead of off to the side -- something for you to keep in mind as well).

Examples of counter-height windows done well:

MamaDadaPaige's Window (interior & exterior):

ErikaNH's Window (interior & exterior):

Buehl, thank you! I think I have about talked myself out of completely flush windows because of the space behind the faucet and water. I’m not worried about splashes on the glass, but more about pooling at the bottom from kids. My options to keep a standard window size and maximize window would be to place them 2” off the counter (allowing a tiny ledge to stop most major water from getting to the frame), or go up to 6”. Which do you feel would be less in the way of a faucet handle? This will be in 2x4 exterior walls and I can’t make the countertop any deeper because of the island space.