Tax question: are pre-rental expenses tax deductible?

[adin55]

My mother in law passed away in July of 2010. Her house was a mess with LOTS of cleanup to do and repairs to perform. All these took a long time to do as my husband did all by himself over weekends. Finally at the beginning of May of 2011 the house was ready for rent and we were lucky to find tenants in a couple of days. I read IRS publication 527 and it is not clear to me. I understand that all the work we did fall within the category of repairs (clean up, put new carpet, paint, pay utilities etc). However, much of these repair expenses were pre-rental expenses (between july of 2010 and may of 2011). We have done very little repairs after the house was occupied by the tenants (may 2011 to now). How should these expenses be handle for tax purposes?. Should I combine them all and report them as repairs disregarding of the time?

thanks