hi. I understand. I just retired at 57 and am really enjoying my basic yard in an average subdivision in Vancouver wa. kids are grown. when one of them made me a grandpa I let them rent my home and after living in a studio rental for a year ive moved back home and bought a huge rv and have it plumbed and wired and in back "yard". i used to really enjoy lawn and garden but lost all interest about 7 years ago and everything went to hell. haha so i have entire front lawn, much to the amusement of my neighbors grass free and am loving growing annuals, veggies and flowers. now i am almost to the point of planting 2000 feet in lawn in back and next spring will garden in the area not in lawn back there too. how old your kids? do they get to go to school where you wanted? i hope i didn't come across wrong and apparently i didn't but man you got lots of work no matter what you do don't you? lol. i used to love yard work so much that in addition to working at port of Vancouver for 35 years, i bought a lawn aerator and did yard work for others on the side. probably didn't make a nickel looking back on it. i bring that up because i never used a verticutter (?) as you said you might to reseed. i always wonders how they worked. when someone wanted a complete lawn makeover , and they were never as huge as yours is, i always rounded their lawn up, thatched, aerated and then reseeded and top-dressed with some grass mulch stuff they sell in bales around here. its a by product of the huge Oregon grassed industry and is seed free and i wither dispersed by hand or rented a caged roller thing that worked great for that. im really interested in what you do. so when you get a minute down the road email me and send pics if you like. im keith dahl kgd1956@gmail.com thanks for getting back. oh by the way, here we are having one of the driest July's on record. no measurable rain since June, with no end in sight. im a heat wimp anymore so i get my stuff done in the morning and enjoy the AC in the RV as i please. life's good. im divorced so i don't have a "honey do" list. my neighbor dude says i have a "homie-do" list haha pic of grand daughter sleeping on me. im pretty crazy about her. :-)

That is definitely step 1 - figure out why the old grass died. It doesn't make any sense to plug ahead if you have a problem that is going to kill the new grass too. Also, what do you mean by "large" area. ie in square ft or acres. CA people tend to have a drastically different idea of a large lawn than midwesterners. If it is a couple hundred sq ft, the easiest fix is usually skimming the dead grass off with a shovel, leveling and laying sod. If the area is larger than that, you are usually better off killing the existing grass with herbicide, cutting it very short, raking up the debris, and then seeding and fertilizing.

We bought a very old log cabin from the local historical society.We dismantled it brought it here to our property and rebuild it the way it was.Mine is only 1 room downwith fire place. with a small loft upstairs.Were getting ready to put a porch on it.Its so sweet.We built an enclosed kitchen garden beside it.brick floor with 8 raised beds.picket fence around it.

Missed this before, so sorry for the delay. Where do you live? What kind of grass do you have? What will the lawn be used for? Just looking at, sports, pets, etc.?