RV Renovation: Slide-In Sanctuary

It took Alexandria Gallizoli three builds before she discovered—created, really—her ideal home-on-wheels. First came the expensive Ford Transit camper van, which lacked the clearance she wanted to reach the wilder landscapes that beckoned her. Next, the skoolie, which initially cost less than the van but kept on breaking down. “Budget living went out the window with the bus,” she says.

Photo Credit: Alexandria Gallizoli

Then, a couple of years back, came the camper and truck that finally fit Gallizioli’s needs: a 1994 Bigfoot C6 fiberglass two-piece truck camper, mounted atop a 2006 Toyota Tundra. With her dad’s help, she built out the interior, drawing on what she’d learned from her first two builds—and from living full-time on the road since the pandemic, when she left a county-government job in California to freelance and travel. Her priorities were threefold: Plenty of room for adventure gear. A hangout space for Terra, her golden retriever, where the pooch wouldn’t be underfoot given the truck camper’s minuscule footprint. Finally, easy-to-clean everything. She and Terra spend their days outside—lots of mud, sand and water get tracked in.

Gallizioli spent $12,000 on the build, a third of which went to outfitting the camper with double-paned Arctic Tern hatch windows, an effort to reduce moisture in the cabin, and splurging on a Dickinson Marine propane fireplace. Mounted on the wall alongside the door, it’s a real aid to keeping things warm and dry. She outfitted the camper with custom-built birch- and maple-plywood inset cabinetry, using a router to ensure clean lines on the open cubbies beneath the sitting area and the many lockable cupboards throughout. Taking out an existing oven tripled the counter space. She crafted a new pine counter—staining it a warm reddish-brown—complete with a deep stainless sink and cooktop. Redwood accents throughout are a nod to her Santa Cruz upbringing.

Photo Credit: Alexandria Gallizoli

The build is purposefully simple, allowing Gallizioli’s belongings—some postcard photos of favorite places, her surfboard lashed to the ceiling—to become the decor. Aiming for self-sufficiency, she added a tank for gray water (it had previously drained out of the truck and onto the ground), along with a small Trelino composting toilet she can stow away. Her advice to those setting out on their build? “Take off on a trip in your half-finished rig.” It’s the best way, she says, to get a real-world sense of what’s working and what else you might need.

Photo Credit: Alexandria Gallizoli

After about a year in her smallest home yet, Gallizioli loves the Bigfoot and the life it facilitates. The biggest challenge is one good design can’t solve: dating. The pool for a 27-year-old queer woman is small enough, she notes, and life on the road in a room-for-one camper sure doesn’t expand it. All the same, Gallizioli says, her downsized rig hasn’t downsized the experience of travel—far from it. “I didn’t want my space to fit in my life, but my life to fit in the space,” she says. “Life on the road is everything I wanted and everything I didn’t know I wanted.”

This article originally appeared in Wildsam magazine. For more Wildsam content, sign up for our newsletter.

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