Building an interactive community

Hi,

I'm a newbie and have very limited experience in PHP. I want to ask about a project I'm going to do and get opinions.

Ok, here it is:
I want to create a dynamic community on my site. I want instant messaging, a message board, a photo gallery, journals, an agenda, polls, and the most important focus will be on the user profile.

I have checked out phpNuke and the other's similar, but I find them too restricting for my taste because I want something very customizable as far as the design goes. So, the question is: Will it be possible to use different scripts for each feature I want and use the same authentification for all and the next question is: Is it possible to find a script for user profiles that I can customize, so that I can ask for the information from the user that which I choose with a photo or two and then post the info on their profile and does anyone have any idea of a script that can easily to customized to do this?

I hope this is clear, but I understand that this may be quite complex, but the problem is that I don't have enough time to do all of the code myself. I'm not looking for a complex answer, but does anyone have suggestion that can steer me on the right path.

Thanks a lot for any help