Wireless mesh sensor networks typically consist of a cluster of intelligent radio nodes which transfer data between each other directly in a hop, or indirectly through two or more hops via adjacent nodes. These nodes contain one or more sensors. Wireless mesh sensor networks provide a solution in monitoring and controlling the physical world around us and offer far reaching potential applications. This paper presents a novel design, implementation and prototype realization of one such potential application, namely the use of a wireless mesh sensor network to monitor the events and activities in a housing community environment. In this network, transmit-only sensor nodes are employed in order to obtain a low cost, easy to deploy and low power solution. A small-scaled version of the proposed network is deployed in a controlled environment, allowing for practical testing and verification of the final design. The results obtained are presented and discussed within.