Zach, you are not the first person to write in here with a lawn that looks like garbage. I've been reading here for 10 years and have been a moderator on three other internet lawn forums since 2003. Logan Labs has emerged as the premier soil test lab in the country. It stands head and shoulders above the second best professional lab in Texas. The same test that LL charges $20 for would cost $100 at the Texas lab. These pro labs serve farms and orchards around the world. With their high volume they can cut their prices. Only one of the university tests (U Mass) even offers what the pro labs offer. The university tests give you pH and the soil macro nutrients. The pro labs give you that plus buffered pH, micro nutrients, CEC, the salt components and their ratios. There are a lot more people who write back to say, "I should have gone to Logan Labs the first time," than those who write in to say, "I'm really glad I went with my local county extension service." Seriously, tilling is a huge mistake. It will not do what you want and it will bring new seeds to the surface to sprout. It will take 3 full years to settle and in the end it will be very bumpy. If you want to freshen your soil, the best thing you can do is cover it in 2 inches of shredded tree (or chipped tree) mulch for a month or two. By covering it with mulch it holds the soil moisture more constant and allows the soil fungi to multiply inn population. The beneficial fungi are what make soil healthy. Bacteria is a secondary player along with protozoa and microarthropods. Earthworms are nice but even they could not survive without healthy fungi. Once you get the mulch down, the improvement happens in a huge hurry. Have you ever seen how fast a bag of bread can turn into a bag of green mold? That's how fast it can happen in the soil. However I would argue that you don't need to do that. You can get the same effect by spraying any clear shampoo on the soil at a rate of 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. Do that twice separated by 3 weeks and your soil will improve surprisingly well. Kill the weeds by spot spraying with Weed-B-Gone. The way you remove all the old grass is with a tool called a verticutter, power rake, slit seeder, or any (rented) tool with vertically rotating blades. You can adjust it so it just touches the soil. It will take all the plants out. Rake or blow the old grass away before seeding. Seed directly onto that soil and roll the seed down with a rented roller.

Leave as-is. Good soils do compact a bit underfoot. That's their job. Walking on my lawn is an exercise in Feeling the Sponginess. What I compact today will be aerated and expanded again by the soil life over the next few days and return to where it was. Even if the rolling wasn't good enough (it probably was), the roots in there now aren't going to like being rolled again, nor will the young and very delicate crowns of the new grass. And by the time it's old enough, the soil will have compressed itself down appropriately and you'll probably never notice any very minor height differences.

Well, I think that is your cue - that fact that the area that the landscaper took care of is healthy. Just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's done more things differently then you have done, then just those little white balls. My understanding is that you can't seed St. Augustine, so I'm not sure how that worked for you. I would recommend talking to your landscaper to see what his recommendation is for you. If we are to help figure out why your lawn is dying, I'm thinking we will need pictures, and information about all the applications that you have done. Maybe your landscaper could tell you information such as both of the types of grass that you have, how you should fertilize, etc.

Reel mowers cut very well, especially if they are new or the blades have been recently sharpened. New tall fescue would be no match for a sharp reel mower. If you do use your rotary mower, make sure the blade is sharp, and instead of putting it on the "high setting", put it on a setting that puts the blade at two inches. I know this sounds low, but if you are mowing 3 inch new tall fescue, you want to remove 1/3 of the length, so you want to mow at 2 inches. To do this, measure the distance from the bottom of the blade to the bottom of the mower deck, if it is more than 1/4 inch, then you need to factor this in when you measure the distance from the bottom of the mower deck to a smooth level surface, preferably pavement. I think a light watering would be a good idea to help keep the seeds in place if you use the mower. The string trimmer idea I don't like because it is hard to keep a constant and correct length for the whole area you intend to cut. You can do a lot more harm than good IMO.