Owner occupied: Deducting for repairs while moving between units

[Brendan L.]

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, I want to just figure out how the deductions work. I know I'll move into one side and have a tenant on the other for a couple months, but she'll be moving out so I can change units. Obviously, it would be nice to deduct as much as possible without being fraudulent. If I want to deduct something like paint for the unit I'm moving into first, can I buy that now and then move into the other unit later and still deduct it? Or do I need to not be living in the painted unit at the time of purchase to be able to deduct it?  What if I purchase the paint now for the the other unit because its on sale, but paint it when I move into it?