Recap:
After several years of drought, we had heavy, heavy rain and water
pooled against the house, followed by a lot of mold in the kitchen. Can
we deduct the repair costs?
The mold was all along the outside wall where the water pooled. Remediation required that the sink area and 1/3rd of the counter and lower cabinets be removed, along with flooring and subflooring. leaving us with an unusable kitchen. Assuming that similar materials were available, the repair to "original" cost was about $20K. We opted to upgrade since similar materials were not readily available (particularly the cabinets). Our eventual cost was $50K.
Can we deduct the $20K as a casualty loss, with the difference added to the basis?
