Project Restoration

Ethan Willis has made a career out of restoring old houses like the Carter Mansion so he's an expert with doors and windows. He knows his way around a toolbox, a construction site, and anything else having to do with rebuilding. If only he could do the same with his own life. Tragically widowed and left with a young son, he's done the best he could, but now that Chase has become a teenager that best somehow isn't quite good enough. For his part, Chase doesn't know what he'd do without baseball, his best friend Elliott and the secret hideaway even his dad doesn't know about. What he does know is that the reporter lady who suddenly started chatting with his dad can't be a good thing. In a small town where everyone knows everything, does an outsider-a young, cute, ambitious reporter-kind-of-outsider like Cameron Dane-even have a prayer of getting to know the handsome but moody builder? Does it matter that they both hold secrets from their pasts? And can Chase ever be freed from the hidden guilt of his mother's death? Only time, and a special kind of patience, will tell. Ethan may be able to rebuild old houses, but he's watching his relationship with his son crumble before his eyes. Can Cameron, the new girl in town, help him save it?

Leslie Ruskin has just purchased the historic Midlands Building, which, like her life, needs a little renovation. Starting over in a new town after a devastating divorce, Leslie wants a fresh start, and some stability for her five-year-old daughter. Still, standing on the sidewalk looking up at the seedy brownstone in Butler, Pennsylvania's reviving downtown, she wonders if she's done the right thing. Her plan is to live in one of the building's second-floor apartments, and rent out the first floor, a large commercial space with stunning architectural details that was once a locksmith's shop. But it needs work. A lot of work. Jack Kenyon, a master carpenter, is starting over too. Beginning his own construction business, he seems to be the perfect man for the project, especially with his experience in historic restoration. But haunted by loneliness, his past failures, and the lost relationship with his own young daughter, Jack finds it difficult to maintain his sobriety. As Leslie struggles to manage as a single mom, the work begins, and she's intrigued when the renovation exposes a mystery in the old locksmith shop. Even more exciting, she rents the area to a chic young couple who are experienced restaurateurs. As the run-down first floor is transformed into a vibrant café/bistro, Jack and Leslie discover an attraction that might become more than a business relationship... and Jack's old demons begin to surface. Will the whole project derail, or will they find the renewal their lives so desperately need? When single mom Leslie Ruskin hires master carpenter Jack Kenyon to restore her historic building, they are both recovering from personal disasters; can they keep their demons at bay or is the whole project a blueprint for disaster?

Can a good, hard-working Christian man disregard his cultural and religious admonitions, as well as his mother's plans for his life, for the love of a woman and an historic church building? Oliver Barnett is a good contractor, a good Christian, and an obedient son, never in trouble, never one to rock the boat... until real estate developer Samantha Cohen enters his life. Samantha, full of life, vitality, and wit, is unlike any woman he has ever known-in more ways than one. Not only is she planning to transform an historic church near downtown Pittsburgh into a restaurant/nightclub, but she is Jewish and has a less-than-innocent past. Oliver finds himself in a most unsettling dilemma. Does he do what's right by the nice girl his mother has chosen for him, or does he do what his heart is telling him to do? Can a good, hard-working Christian man disregard his cultural and religious admonitions, as well as his mother's plans for his life, for the love of a woman and an historic church building?