Solutions

When we bought our house my biggest holdback was the front entrance, or lack of one. Our house faces an elementary school and sometimes busy two lane road. To compensate for this the builder made the homes to have alley driveways. While this gave us a great sized backyard, tons of privacy ( the alley backs up to a wooded green space- not other houses) it also took away something super important to me: a welcoming front entry for my guests. I LOVE having people over so this has been a huge adjustment for me. Another complication to our back door entrance is that to optimize patio space we had a gate to the fenced yard put in at right angles from the garage. We needed the entire yard fenced so that our kids can play safely. So now when people come over they have to park behind our house and decide if its ok to come in the gate. Ugh. Not a great situation for someone who loves hosting as much as I do. 

My awesome hubby spent some time with me at the construction store this weekend and we came up with a couple of solutions- what do you think? 

This my friends is a DOORBELL! Did you know you can buy them for 15$? The inside part just plugs into an outlet. I bought two of the plaques ( the second ill show you in a second). Then I spray painted both this fun blue that matches our outdoor furniture. The doorbell button for outside I just hot glued on and put a frame around for stability. In theory the black painted part above the bell is chalkboard paint. I think mines gotten too old but I'm going to try writing on it after it cures. Now my guests can say " I'm here!" Without the weird. 

Another issue we have is that every fence is identical on our block.  There are house numbers on the back of the house above our garage door but NO ONE sees them. The second plaque got a set of numbers and voila! That's my house! Hopefully this warms things up a bit. Come on over!