Having a bar at the bottom of our garden means we're often down there entertaining guests or just brushing up on our pool skills after work. It also means we can't hear the doorbell if someone comes to the house and we're out of range for traditional wireless doorbell systems.

Shortly after we moved in, I had the idea of using a Raspberry Pi to send a push notification to my phone whenever the doorbell rang. I did a little research to find out if it was possible and saw a few other people had done it previously, but I dismissed it as too difficult to do well.

With the help of a Raspberry Pi Zero and a tiny GSM module, I plan to add text messaging to my existing doorbell without adding any extra boxes hanging out of the side.