SWAN’S ISLAND — In a matter of weeks, Kathy and Brian Krafjack sold their house in Stonington, Conn., moved into their new home on Swan’s Island, and re-opened the former Carrying Place Market as The Island Market & Supply.
At mid-morning on a recent Thursday, Kathy was settled in behind the cash register, ringing up groceries and prepared lunches for a stream of customers. Brian looked into purchasing haddock from a local dealer, while Jill Philbrook was in the adjacent concession trailer, cooking up cheeseburgers, pizza, fries and more.
Their move was quick, but they had been on the lookout for an island home for a while, and Swan’s Island provided a set of circumstances that was right both for themselves and the community.
“It all happened so fast that it just seems normal,” Brian said. “It doesn’t feel like we got uprooted. I worked up until two days before the moving van came. We got right into the flow.”
Said Kathy, “There was no time to second-guess ourselves. The key thing was selling our house, and then the ball was rolling.”
Brian is an architect who worked endless hours for a firm he loved, and an inveterate sail cruiser and racer. Years ago, he was living on his sailboat at Essex, Conn., when he popped into a local inn one nasty winter evening. At the bar, a friendship started when Kathy bought him a beer. The rest, as they say, is history.
Living on an island was a dream for the couple.
“I lived on Nantucket year-round for a couple of years,” said Kathy, an artist and art teacher. “I loved the winters. I loved how quiet it was, loved going to parts of the island where nobody else was. It was incredibly beautiful.”
Island property near their Connecticut home was prohibitively expensive. They were looking at a boat to buy on Chebeague Island, “and we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was” in Maine, Kathy said. “It just started there—could we live up here, and what would we do if we lived up here?”
They visited other Maine islands. The first time they visited Swan’s Island, as it happened, their first lunch was at The Carrying Place, a small operation strategically located on a road frequented by residents and tourists. It was summer, the picnic tables were out, the takeout going strong, and then-owners David and Cindy Niquette, who also operate a lobster wharf here, were looking to sell.
But the idea of buying the store didn’t occur to the Krafjacks until later. Originally, Brian thought he would do architectural consulting wherever they relocated. Kathy would paint and do medical transcription.
But, he said, “One day, we were sitting on Frenchboro with just cashews for breakfast, because there was no store. And we thought about the store on Swan’s Island. That was back in October, and we bought it.”
As it happened, a house was for sale just down the road from the market. By cosmic coincidence, the owners were originally from Centerbrook, the home of Centerbrook Architects, where Brian was an associate.
The couple arrived March 18 and launched their new career as store owners, with much help from the Niquettes and employees, and lots of good wishes from the community. They reopened under the store’s new name, whose acronym is TIMS, on April 4. (Folks now assume Brian’s name is Tim.)
The couple is deep into gearing up for the summer and networking with residents to meet their grocery needs.
“This is the only store on the island,” Brian said. “We’ve had a lot of people tell us how important it is to have a store. People can’t always get off the island. We’ll never replace [mainland supermarkets], but if we can offer enough variety here, it will make life a lot easier for people.”
Soon, the takeout will open full-time, with lobster rolls, fish sandwiches, wraps, salads, ice cream and more. The Krajacks plan to buy lobster from the island’s three wharfs, to sell live or steamed.
“It’s been fun to see how each day unfolds,” said Kathy.