Did some more yakin' with some more people and came to realize that I should have quite a bit of home improvement costs to write off. It's been over 10 years since most of the work was done and wasn't currently aware we were unable to write that stuff off at the time.
Remodeled the kitchen, dining, and living room. Built a 26'x36' detached shop. Landscaped the whole place front to back. Built a retaining wall the whole length of the property and put in a driveway to the shop......
99% of the actually dollar cost was materials and we should have most receipts and/or check register records.
My father in-law seems to think I can write off a reasonable amount of my sweat equity too.
Maybe I won't be able to clean up my portfolio much......