pk - You are helping for sure, not confusing. The IRS has tried to precisely define the rules but clearly there is a lot of art involved and sometimes intent seems to matter which is unfortunately all in my head. For example, the tree pruning was done as part of a general yard cleanup and improvement including some new irrigation components. It was intended as part of our preparation to sell which was a year-long project. I think that seeing lots of apples and pears on the trees was a selling point.
Here is yet another tricky situation: There is a middle period of about 10 years, after the days when paper checks were returned by mail (i still have some) from the bank and before the bank stopped keeping check images online about 7 years ago. I wish I had known that they were not keeping the images forever! I know that many improvements were done in those missing years but I can not prove it except that the final result was observed by many friends. Is it possible that the IRS would accept some kind of reasonable estimate for a deck or or new windows etc without actual receipts?
