Deductions & credits

The property won't be available to rent until March 2020. The property is still currently being worked on. It is not ready to be rented. Since 2019 has already passed and I paid money to have work done on the property, how do I deduct my expenses?

Some of the work done were repair some were improvements.

If I am not renting it, I can't enter it as a depreciation in 2019. Can I deduct my repair work as expenses? Does it make sense to do it that way?