Ding Dong Has a Whole New Meaning….

Ding Dong Has a Whole New Meaning….for me at least.

Have you ever found something that is so simple yet it appears to have made every day things just a bit easier?

Let me start from the beginning ….that usually helps!

We love our home here in Florida and one of the attractions of our home for me at least was the front courtyard. But that came with a price….not literally a price, but an inconvenience shall we say?

You see, in order to answer the door, I have to exit the house and walk across the courtyard to the big double (solid) doors in the front of the house. Granted, that is good exercise… so no big deal.  However, the challenge came with hearing anyone at the door.  Knocking is certainly out of the question, because I would never hear that once I am in the house.  We would have difficulty hearing anyone knock even with all the sliders open to the courtyard, because of the splashing water sounds of the waterfall and pool and spa. 

The second issue is the 10 foot tall adobe courtyard wall has no windows (Yeah!!!!  a definite plus for me while I am in the pool)…..but again, there is no way to “see” who might be at the front doors. There are NO windows on the front of the house, except for the two garage windows and a very high office window.

So when we moved in, the Captain installed security cameras, hidden all around the front, sides and back of the house….as well as an over-all house security system!

But that did not solve the problem of hearing the doorbell.  The existing doorbell worked on batteries and for some reason, I could never hear the doorbell (it worked every time we tested it, as I stood right in front of the chime) but for everyday use….it remained useless.  So the Captain installed a second “back-up” door bell and that proved to be useless, too.

Sooooo anytime we had guests or repair men come to the house, I asked them to call me when they entered the driveway and I would scurry to the front door to let them in.  But that was really not a solution.  That is until the Captain came up with the most wonderful idea.

Below is a pic of a solicitor at our door this past Saturday Morning…..

This involved installing more cameras, (some hidden and some in plain sight) BUT, it also involved installing a door bell that rang my phone and/or computer each time we had visitors!

Hooray!!!!!  I am in love!

Below is a pic of an example on a cell phone.

It is sorta like an intercom, but a carry-it-with-you intercom. I can see who is at the door and talk to them and they can talk to me…. and if I don’t want to go to the door….like for salesmen, etc, I can just say no thank you!

Below is a pic of our neighbors bringing us candy from their candy shop. 

Now, do you want to hear the best part? I don’t have to be home to answer my door. I can see and talk to the ringer of the door bell, no matter where I am. Soooooo no one knows if I am home or at the supermarket.  Isn’t that cool?  All I have to remember is to take my cell phone with me and we all know…we all are joined at the hip with our cell phones. Right?

This has also improved my package deliveries too.  The UPS or FEDX or the mail lady find that I am “home” now, when they ring the doorbell.

Another plus:  The system keeps a video record of all the visitors and their times of arrival.  This is all on my computer. 

I am finding that I was “spared” the door to door solicitations by not previously having a video doorbell. I never heard them before, so I never knew they were a knockin’ at my door!

Somehow, I think that was a good thing!

Have a great day my dear readers…..