Get some Milorganite fert and apply some to the bare soil. Lay your sod pieces. Make sure the sod has contact with the soil. If you have a large area, rent a water roller from the big box store. Apply some more Milorganite to the top of the sod. Keep moist for 1-2 weeks, which means watering 2-3x per day. then water 1x per day for a week Then water every other day for a week. Then return to normal waterings Thats it.

The most important thing you can do is roll the sod down. Roots cannot grow through the air to reach the soil underneath. Water 3x per day - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Assuming 1 inch per hour you only need to water for 10 minutes each time. That means 1/6 to 1/4 inch. All you're trying to do is moisten the sod to the roots, not soak the underlying soil. Do that for about 3 weeks or until the roots have knit into the soil. Test by lifting a piece of sod. If it lifts, the roots are there yet. After 3 weeks you can start to back off on frequency and go up on duration. Ideally the starting point for mature lawn would be 1 inch per week applied all at one time. If that appears to be too much, then stretch it out to 10 days for 1 inch. Once mature, if the grass withers before 7 days are up, water immediately but water a little longer to try to stretch to 7 days. The reason for infrequent watering is to develop deep, drought resistant roots. Second reason is to prevent weed seed from germinating. Weed seed needs the same constant moisture as you gave the lawn when getting the sod to knit. If you withhold water for long enough that the soil surface dries out, then the weeds won't sprout.

Thank you! I looked for a specific forum but I missed that ...I will repost if that is acceptable Update: done https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5234740/m=3/removing-the-sod-and-seeding-new-for-an-area-24x48-advice-needed

Other than cutting it regularly I did not do anything with the grass. I guess that means neglecting it. I don't see my neighbors doing anything special to theirs buy....theirs looks better :-)) The soil is uneven because the former owner built a patio and he unevenly spread the soil in the backyard. Last spring I was able to fix the lawn in an area adjacent to a walk path I built.... Here you can see the results two weeks after the fact. I added a couple of bags of black soil bought from Rona because the ares was under the level of the lawn to the left of it..so that brownish area is me trying to fix and make it level on that area. I don't mind if this summer I don't have to do the lawn at all :-))