Katie Marks

Katie Marks

Katie Marks is a California-based author who loves finding cool life hacks, sharing them with friends, and diving headlong into craft projects. If there is a garden somewhere, you can probably find her outside playing in it. She also enjoys cooking, reading, and being a full-time nerd. Don’t be fooled by her profile picture: She is a person, not a vegetable, who has written an incredible amount of insightful articles for Networx.com.

Among her written works, Katie has written about Earthships, which are highly sustainable buildings created entirely from recycled and natural materials, typically integrated together in a seamless whole (see her article “Extreme Earthships in Extreme Places” for more details: https://www.networx.com/article/extreme-earthships-in-extreme-places). She has also written about dressing up a home with wainscoting, in which she recommends adventuring into using unusual materials such lincrusta, hemp, sewn paper, fiber, and mosaics, if you are wanting to achieve a more unique look than that of wood paneling.
(https://www.networx.com/article/dress-up-with-wainscoting).

For those wanting recommendations for the best paint colors for the exterior of their home, I’d suggest checking out Katie’s article entitled “Go Bold With Exterior Color” (https://www.networx.com/article/go-bold-with-exterior-color), where she provides images and slideshows of homes that take advantage of the more saturated parts of the color wheel. This article provides exciting ideas for color schemes for those who have too big of a personality to settle for painting the exterior of their home in a dull grey or beige hue.


Katie also gives simple day-to-day tips for activities such as storing food properly (https://www.networx.com/article/store-food-right) and starting gardens (https://www.networx.com/article/gardeners-start-your-seedlings), where you can really see her passion for gardening shine through her writing.

See more of Katie’s articles below for more life hacks, home improvement tips and gardening how-tos!

These original hardwood floors need some work... Photo: Juhan Sonin/Flickr

Seamless Hardwood Floor Repairs

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 26, 2014

Old hardwood floors are enchanting. They're made with tough old growth wood, featuring a tight, even grain that modern wood just can't match, and you can tell they were installed with...

Photo: Fox/Flickr

10 Disturbing Water Scarcity Facts

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 25, 2014

March 22nd marks World Water Day, a yearly global event to raise consciousness about ongoing water scarcity, particularly in the Global South. While many of us in the United States...

Photo: Jan Carson/Flickr

These Solar Panels Love Cloudy Days

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 24, 2014

Everyone knows solar panels don't work on cloudy days, right? If there's no sun, how is a solar panel supposed to generate energy? That's why they're a great choice for warm, sunny...

Photo: Jill Fritz/Hometalk

Refresh Your Backsplash!

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 21, 2014

We know everyone's obsessed with subway tile, and we get it. It sure is sleek, gorgeous, and classic. But it's also getting kind of...old. Sorry, but true. Everyone has it, and it seems...

Photo: Sven/Flickr

Spring Roof Maintenance Tips

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 21, 2014

SPRING HAS SPRUNG! My friends, I am so excited, because, honestly, I was kind of over winter. While of course snow and other delightful weather will be lingering across the country,...

Making A/C Smarter

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 20, 2014

Air conditioning eats up a lot of energy in the summer months, whether you're talking a whole-building system or a simple wall-mounted unit. Many people leave it running constantly,...

Learn more about this compost superstar below... Photo: Jinx McCombs/Flickr

Ugh, What Happened to the Compost?!

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 19, 2014

Ah, compost. That rich, earthy smell, those happy worms, those organic materials breaking down to provide fantastic soil for nourishing your garden. You just want to stick your hands...

Photo: Mark Smith/Flickr

Duck, Duck, GOOSE! Raising Waterfowl

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 19, 2014

Whether you want eggs, meat, a friendly face, or a guardian animal, ducks and geese are a great choice if you want to think beyond chickens. These personable, active birds are a fantastic...

Photo: US Army Corps of Engineers/Flickr

Congress Restores Subsidy for High-Risk Flood Insurance

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 18, 2014

Catastrophic damage to your home is probably one of your worst nightmares as a homeowner, whether you live in a blizzard-prone area, a region wracked by earthquakes, or a floodplain....

Photo: beglib/Morguefile

Make the Most of Small Yards

Posted by Katie Marks | Mar 17, 2014

Got a yard the size of a postage stamp? I used to live in a house where the deck space was bigger than the garden, which was barely big enough for a cat to turn around in (granted,...