They will provide you with a list of items, do them.

We were so over budget and some of the budget went to Items that add very little value (such as new plumbing and electrical) that I suspect we barely added more value than the cost.  

Things like the asking for the same items multiple times, costs/fees that weren't originally discussed or catching the land contract a bit late in the process give me a bad experience.

As you surmise, there is no way to avoid the deemed gain on transferring it out of the Federal corporate structure, into a pass through structure.There are potential ways to to transfer out the future appreciation while leaving the bulk of the 'old' appreciation in the S-Corp, but no way to get that 'old' appreciation out of the corp without triggering a gain.Last item to reiterate - this gain is at the S-level, so it’ll give rise to S/H basis (while simultaneously reducing basis via the distribution).

Items with a strong foundation for growth that you are happy to own.

You also want to avoid throwing a bunch of money at Vanity items and furniture.

Overall mostly cosmetic items.

Such as deep clean, nonexistent items charged for and inflated prices for stocking. any chance I can get my money back?

A task management tool or simple checklist should help you get your projects done on time and within scope, while something like Quickbooks can capture your costs and inform you of your accounting.

There are a ton of other small and large items as well.