[snip]. Picture a small electronic box, on the front is a 16x2 Blue / White backlit LCD with buttons next to it, communicates via serial or i2c. on either side of the box is an RJ-11 telephone port. The box would be multifunctional. It could be programmed to record conversations, either all of them or only from certain numbers. It could be programmed to block calls and not ring the line based on the number. It could be an answering machine, it could be a fax machine and you would retrieve your faxes via ethernet, or USB. It could be programmed to do wakeup calls. Obviously something like this is going to need an embedded processor as all of the functions are gong to be added by software. any thoughts?
That box is what we used to call a modem! (I only half jest... I've seen most of the functionality you suggest implemented by modems over the years... Even the 16x2 LCD...)
I kind of have to agree with the others, if you've got the possibility return what you can; It's easy to get caught up in equipment last and buy (on credit!) a lot of things you later find you don't really need. And don't dismiss ICs too easily either; We're all building on the shoulders of giants and the huge range of ICs available today make it possible for a single designer to build devices that would have been inconceivable in years past. Not to mention, as others have, that a lot of functionality we take for granted today may not even be physically possible in discrete components (WiFi?).