I live in an apartment with only one phone jack so when my boyfriend gave me my vtech cordless phone with the extra handset as a christmas gift las christmas it was awesome. All I needed was a electrical socket to plug  the extra handset base into and I was good to go. I have the base that has the answering machine ,in my living room , The answering maching part has never let me down , I have never missed a message due to unforeseen circumstances like with some of my old answering machines , and the cordless phones themselves are great too, I can take the phone out doors to the dumpster and still...