Naive tax rental question

[Andrew Shippy]

This is the first year I have rented out my townhouse and have a question about filing and wanted others' thoughts. The home was purchased four years ago as a foreclosure and we made many capital improvements such as brand new kitchen, new laminate and carpet throughout, new water heater, tore down some walls, and the list goes a little longer. 

When filing taxes I have someone close to me saying I can deduct all of those items on this years taxes (even though they were fixed some years back). While someone else is telling me I need to report those improvements as the overall "cost basis" for my property when using deprecation as a deduction. 

I am fairly young and this was my first year having a rental, and I want to make sure I am doing the right/ best possible thing moving forward. I currently use Turbo Tax as my filing system. Any thoughts?