Mansfield man builds pergola, tree house, barn from trees he cut on his Gass Road property
Roger Keen likes building things from wood, from using his own hands to cut down trees to the finishing touches.
The rural Gass Road man has a natural talent when it comes to woodworking although he worked as a metal worker at General Motors Ontario plant in 2013 until the plant shut down.
"I had a chain saw in my hand since I was 12," he said from his spacious 40-acre property near Clearfork Reservoir.
His wife Delores said her husband is self taught and all their friends want to hire him.
"He's about worn out his arms from working so hard," she said.
He recently finished building a pergola, which measures 12 feet by 16 feet and 12 feet tall, making the backyard structure in five months from cherry wood he cut on his property himself.
A bench he made which sits beneath the pergola has tree stumps as legs.
Roger Keen also made a sturdy tree house for his great nieces at his property although they are now 16 and don't use it much. The couple eat lunch there somedays and play checkers. Every board for the treehouse and his barn came off the couple's property.
There's book shelves and benches, windows and more.
"We have to lock the door," his wife said, showing this visitor the inside of the tree house. "Raccoons were coming in."
"He's a perfectionist," said his wife. "He never had a floor plan for the tree house or barn," she said proudly. "He just gets an idea in his head."
Keen built a bathroom countertop from a walnut tree he cut down himself too.
His next project is to tear out steps from the rear of their home and make new ones and build a landing and create a patio on the site where a swimming pool used to be.
He also plans to replace an island in the kitchen with a custom wood counter top he is going to build.
Roger said he never really did woodworking until recently. He's remodeled houses where ever they moved but worked at the Ontario GM plant until it closed on West Fourth Street in Ontario. He was then laid off for a time then he commuted from his home and back daily to Defiance, transferring to the GM plant there so he could get enough time in to retire.
"I drove about 132 miles one way for about a year," he said.
He said his family is from southwestern Virginia in the Appalachian range. "I was the youngest of four boys and dad had a construction company, Keen Well Drilling, which is still going today after by dad sold out to my uncle and my uncle's daughter and son-in-law still run it in Mount Vernon (Ohio)," he said.
He said he isn't looking for a second career as a woodworker. He and his wife are celebrating 50 years marriage this year. He isn't one to sit down much, she said.
In the future Roger said he might dig a large pond where the couple can look at wildlife and enjoy the view from their backyard pergola.
It has become a gathering spot for friends and family and their dog Tank.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Retired General Motors employee loves building things from wood
