Wondering what, if anything, I could do to spruce up the place to make it more attractive to a potential tenant OR if there are ideas of what I could personally do to it that would create some nice cash flow for me (co-working spaces, etc.).

Any contacts of a good reliable person in the area - would like to set up a relationship with them and keep them in my list of contacts for future work.  

If it were me, I would try to buy out the current owner, and do a partnership with your money person.  

My 2 cents is that for non-sleeping areas, hot tubs, pool tables and movie rooms are top amenities that guest have personally told me they like the best.I think an outdoor rated pool table (or maybe ping pong table), TV and comfortable seating would likely be the best bang for your buck.

My biggest surprise on this last project was that they allowed standard 1/2" sheetrock for fire wall.

Ive been hosting my primary residence in Denver for years without incident, and each year renew license etc without no issues outside of the standard bureaucratic headaches.

Do you think if the grant deed showing the transfer from the personal name to the LLC would work? 

I've seen that too which is a little sad considering that's one of the things I miss from working in my old large public firm.I can certainly see where you're coming from and I was wondering myself on how the SUoP would be defined since there isn't really a standard definition defined by the IRS with regard to construction/renovation.

The LLC protects your personal assets from liability of your business.

(Our personal State Farm Agent recommended them and so far its worked out well) We are in Indiana.