Each year we do some amount of capital improvement to our house -- permanent improvements, additions, things that should be legitimate capital investments -- and add the total costs to the basis.
(These costs are also added to depreciation schedule, since a sizable fraction of the house is sublet as a rental unit.)
Some years back we invested fairly big bucks in an architectural design and preliminary plans for a really major remodel -- then at last minute decided not to actually do it.
Can those bucks also be added to the basis, on grounds that "they were part of a continuing every year process of improvement to the house, or intended for same at time spent" -- or something like that?