For years now I have wanted a “dashboard” somewhere central in my house. I think the inspiration comes from my childhood when my Mom would keep a paper calendar with family plans. At some point during my childhood, probably when I was around 8 or 9 years old I started checking the calendar at least a couple times a day. I was the oldest of 6 and I was becoming more and more aware that if I could answer my own questions about what was going on and not interrupt my Mom, everything worked a little bit better.

I had my first thoughts of wanting to do something with our doorbell a few years ago after we added our first smart home devices and tried to get a Ring doorbell, but it was too bulky to fit on our doorframe.

This idea remained vague until I saw a YouTube video, probably over a year ago, about how to turn an old doorbell into a smart home button. Once I saw that video, I knew I wanted that project to be my first foray into the world of small electronics, a world I have watched on YouTube for many years, waiting for the time to get into it.