"Schedule E" HELP for tax illiterate newbie!! :)

[Rebecca Cramer]

Hi friends! 

I am finally getting to my 2018 taxes and we bought our first short term vacation rental property in 2018. We have receipts galore and trying to fill out our "schedule E" and I have a lot of questions. Our CPA wants us to pay him $100/hour just to answer a few questions...so Im here asking you. Here we go:

1. Im so confused what category to put things like all the decor we bough for the house, pillows, plates, kayaks, paintings, coffee and tea,furniture, sheets, mattress, couch, everything we bought and continue to buy to make the property a vacation rental....there is the "supplies" category but I also heard some things go into the the depreciation category like furniture. But just confused where to put what...HELP!

2.Also, when we came up to stay in the location (Ocean City, Maryland) to look for houses and stayed in hotels and ate out can we deduct that as well in "travel" category? Is it 50% of food costs? Does that include the grocery store food we bought during those trips?

3.Also when we go to the property to do improvements. Can we deduct all the food costs 50%? Grocery store food?

4.Can we deduct loss of income when we stayed at the property to do improvements since we blocked time off and couldn't get rentals?

Any help would be so much appreciated! Thanks!!

Best Regards, Rebecca