You could be in for a world of weed problems if you rototill, as it will unearth a lot of dormant weed seeds. Also, it could be harder to grade. I know that the theory behind rototilling compost into the clay sounds ideal, but others haven't had as much luck. Here is what I would do: 1) Put the 2" of new soil down...Make sure it is nicely graded. 2) Seed. 3) Topdress with a very light layer of compost. Last year I did that, but mixed in some peat moss into that mixture. It worked great. My neighbor did it too, and he now has the most beautiful lawn in the development. 4) Let the grass grow. 5) A year later, get the core aerator out there and do at least two passes over it, so that it looks like a mine field. Liberally apply compost at that time. Overseed. Done! Consider moving to a hybrid approach to fertilizing. I have been applying preemergent this year and some light weed killer, but have been feeding my lawn only organically. The lawn has responded very well to this approach. If you amend the soil a bit at a time through mulch mowing, organic fertilizer, and topdressing with compost, you will eventually get the soil consistency that you want.

You mow as soon as it need mowed. The taller the Rye gets, the more nutrients, water and sunlight it robs from the Fescue seedlings which have not germinated yet.

Newly seeded grass should be cut at the height recommended by the grower. Generally it is 3-3.5 inches. This promotes tillering/thickening, and "trains" your grass in a way. When grass gets longer and longer it stops looking like a lawn and starts looking like a field. Ever see a field that has been cut back to a couple inches? It doesn't look anything like a lawn since you are mowing stems and crowns at that point, not blades. At what height are you planning on keeping your lawn? When you mow you shouldn't remove more than 1/3 of the blade. If you are going to keep it at 3 inches, then you should cut it when it gets to around 4.25 inches or less. Cutting your grass is a stress on it, it is much more stressful to cut 7 inch grass back to 3 inches than it is cutting 4 inches back to 3.

Hey Ryan. One thing we have learned by looking at thousands of lawn pictures is...don't take the pictures on a sunny day. The contrast is too strong to see the detail we need. Having said that, yours are fine for this question. Where exactly do you live in SoCal? Oildale or Heber? Likely you live somewhere in between, but you get my drift. SoCal covers a lot of mileage where the zones move around as does the microclimate and the soil. I lived in Riverside for 15 years and elsewhere around the area for 16 more. In addition to the living I traveled from Santa Barbara to San Diego quite often and should be able to help if you can be fairly specific. I don't need your nearest cross street, but at least name the town. If you live west of the 5 and south of the Tehachipis, then Marathon II should be fine. If you are east of the 5 and/or inland of the coastal hills, then Marathon II is a water hog and you should consider either St Augustine or bermuda. Since bermuda will not grow in the shade, that leaves St Augustine. St Aug is a coarse bladed grass which will look like crabgrass to you if you are used to the Marathon II. But St Aug behaves much better than crabgrass. I just got this picture from a friend in Phoenix this weekend. It really shows what St Aug looks like in action. He was getting ready to mow... He just sodded that lawn this year. You can see how dense it is in the shade. Like a growing number of us, he's all organic. Here it is after mowing and before edging... Anyway I suspect watering is more your problem than shade. Do you water for 10 minutes every day? That is the general advice you get from the so-called professionals in SoCal. That advice is wrong. Deep and infrequent is the universal mantra for watering a lawn. Generally deep means 1 full inch all at one time. Infrequent means ONCE a MONTH this time of year for most of SoCal west of Mt San Jacinto. You cannot go cold turkey on this watering if you have been watering it every day all winter. What you can do is start to increase the time from 10 minutes to 20 and then back off on the daily part. Watch the grass for signs of stress and then water. The grass will eventually develop deeper and deeper roots which can stand much longer periods without surface water. I have a house on the edge of the Texas desert with parts of the lawn in shade that have not had irrigation water since October of 2011 and the grass looks fine. There are other circumstances in my situation, but the point is if you can develop the deep roots, the grass will not need anything close to daily watering. If you live where the temps get into the 90s in the summer, then you'll be watering once a week, but always 1 inch. If you or your soil has a problem with that, tell us what the issue is and we can likely help with that. Is this yard on the north side of the house? Does water seem to pool up in the area where the grass is not working? Worst case is you modify the shape of your flower beds and add more geraniums.