Influencer Fixes ‘Landlord Special’ Peephole in Viral Video Series (Exclusive)

After two and a half years in her Brooklyn, NY apartment, Gigi Bello had come to terms with what she jokingly called her “landlord’s special” front door—with a useless peephole that had long been painted closed.

Recently, however, the situation took a serious turn when the 28-year-old accountant, who lives alone, was surprised on more than one occasion by police officers standing at her door looking for someone else.

“My apartment number is really similar to another unit in my building, so they always get confused,” Bello tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Not being able to see who was out there before I opened the door didn’t exactly make me feel safe.”

Besides security, Bello was also generally curious about what was hiding under all those layers of white paint, so she took it upon herself to find out.

“I’m the type of person who never likes to ask for help – which usually gets me into trouble,” admits the content creator, recalling the time she became a plumber for the day and ended up breaking the drain.

Another example was when she tried to install her own AC unit – a project that resulted in a missing ground wire.

“I just love learning how things work and fixing things myself, and my overconfident mind always convinces me that I can do it,” Bello shares.

“I think it comes from growing up with an Italian dad and joining in on his side jobs, laying bricks and tiles. It made me realize that this sort of thing isn’t as scary as it looks – it’s actually strangely therapeutic.”

The hardest part, she admits, was trying not to destroy the door in the process — unlike her fateful drain. But it got a lot messier before it got better.

After dealing with the layers of paint that had essentially been glued to the doorbell, Bello quickly discovered that the peephole did not fold no matter how hard she pulled.

As a result, she dismantled the entire doorbell and re-engineered the mechanism from the inside—using a hairpin, of all things—to get it to open and close properly.

The small victory was short-lived, however, when Bello realized that the actual doorbell was not working properly and, in an attempt to appease the viewers, experimented with it until a dull ringtone turned into a sharp sound.

Halfway through her triumph, one commenter also pointed out that the black mold she had discovered inside peephole “looked like asbestos”, sending her into a brief panic that thankfully turned out to be nothing serious.

“Live-posting each step and getting constructive criticism from people watching also helped a ton — some of the comments actually guided me in real time,” Bello reveals. “The most surprising part was how satisfying it all was, like solving a puzzle that’s been plaguing you for years.”

What began as one of her “classic ADHD projects,” sparked by curiosity and a simple desire to feel safer, quickly evolved into an online series that some commentators said rivaled anything streaming on HBO and Netflix.

“I thought some people might relate to dealing with ‘landlord specials,’ but I didn’t think the internet would get so deep into my peephole journey,” admits Bello.

Little did she know that each of her 10 DIY project videos would attract millions of views – with her second episode soaring past 17 million.

“It became this mini-fairytale that everyone went along with, which made it even more fun,” Bello tells PEOPLE. “I really think that when you’re really passionate about something—even if it’s as random as a painted-over peephole—people can feel that energy. It gets them excited, too.”

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Now that the peephole is fixed and she is restored it to a perfect golden stain — an equally captivating part of the project — Bello says she’s learned a lot about herself along the way.

“I’m more capable than I give myself credit for. I joke that these are my ADHD projects, but they really teach me patience and problem solving,” she tells PEOPLE.

“It’s cool to realize that you can take something apart, figure it out, and put it back together—and now I have a working peephole to show for it.”