Hi! Welcome to the fun world of herb gardening! The first thing you need to do is learn just a little bit about what the herbs prefer. Out of those you listed, Parsley, Cilantro, Basil, and Mint like water. Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, and Sage are much more arid and need to have really good drainage and not as much water. So, just learning a bit about your herbs will go a long way. That will help you group them properly, so that you don't put thyme with basil and either drown your thyme and starve your basil. Also, some are annual (one season only), some are perennial (come back year after year). Parsley is biennieal--with leaves the first year, then some leaves the second then flower stalks and seeds. All of those are full-sun, though cilantro is a cooler season that will bolt to flower and coriander seed when it gets hot. Definitely mint needs its own pot--it is very invasive (code for you will never get rid of this plant). Depending on what you want to use it for--Spearmint is that basic, peppermint for more dessert applications (or chocolate mint), I prefer apple mint in my iced tea, and there's a nice hybrid of spearmint and apple mint called Kentucky Colonel that's a good all purpose. And about 50 other varieties. For thyme, I would start with a French or Lemon Thyme. Nice all-purpose ones, and culinary varieties (thyme has a lot of ornamental types too). Rosemary--Tuscan Blue or Barbecue are nice varieties. Basil--Sweet or Genovese is the main one, but there are lots more. Do a little research on what types you'd prefer-there's lemon, Thai, cinnamon, etc. Tarragon--you'll want a French Tarragon (not Russian). I would also suggest onion chives, Greek oregano, marjoram, and sage. If DH will get you some raised beds ASAP, they can be very nice, since it brings the herbs up more to your level, and helps facilitate the drainage that the herbs need, if you don't completely seal the bottom with plastic or such. Do some searching here in the herb forum (which I know can be more difficult than it sounds)--there's lots of great tips. Or, just google "how to take care of basil" or whatever. I think the National Gardening Association website has some nice basic details that you would like. Once you're established--regular harvesting of most herb plants is beneficial to the plant. General rule of up to 1/3 of the plant at a time. Some, like chives can be harvested down to the ground and come back right away. Regular harvesting (pinching) of basil encourages bushiness and more production. Again, just a little info on how to handle the plant will be a great help. Don't be intimidated--a little knowledge will get you a long way, and it's lovely to have your own fresh herbs at your fingertips.

You are more in left field than you might think. Your neighbors are pushing you that direction. Unless you know of a specific drainage issue you're having, then don't bring in any more topsoil. Topsoil always changes your drainage. What you don't want to happen is to change it from good drainage to poor drainage. With a brand new home the builder likely left you with a perfectly profiled and draining landscape. That means the soil begins about 4 inches below the sill plate of the house and slopes away from the house for about 10 feet at least to a depth 6 inches further below the sill plate. It also means all the water drains toward the road or an official drain on your property. If you or your neighbors believe there might be a problem with the ability of the existing soil to maintain healthy planting, that can be fixed. Bringing in new topsoil means you have to test that soil instead of the old soil. It does not automatically fix anything. If you want a soil test, now would be a fine time. The soil test will fix the chemistry. Adding organic fertilizer will help fix the biology. Then growing grass and plants will further help the biology. After some months of growing stuff, your soil should be much improved over whatever it is now. Actually your weeds are secretly helping improve your soil's health. You have a lot of prep work in front of you before the grass gets delivered. You need it all done first. Don't let grass sit around on pallets or on the truck waiting for you to dig the sprinkler system. Start by NOT rototilling. Rototilling will not do whatever you think it will and it will ruin your existing soil structure. Your existing structure is still figuring itself out, so don't monkey with it. Sod will go down directly on the soil as is once the weeds are killed and raked away. Mow the weeds and kill them with Roundup spray once. Then start watering 2x per day to moisten the soil and try to grow new weed seeds. Water like that for a week. Then spray any new weeds that start to grow. Then you can do your plumbing. When you take soil out of the trenches, ALL THAT SOIL THAT CAME OUT GOES BACK INTO THE TRENCHES. Do not make the amateur mistake of leveling the tops of the trenches. There should be a mound on top of each one so that soil can settle back down to level with the rest of the soil. Otherwise in 2-3 years you'll see your trenches reappearing as the fluffy soil settles. Then you can put down your new sod. After the sod goes down it should be rolled with a water fillable roller to ensure the bottom of the new sod touches the top of the old soil. Roots will not grow down through the air to reach the soil below. You don't need to aerate. You are starting with newly profiled surface, so it should be relatively soft. Furthermore, aeration does not do what you think it does. At this point I'm not sure it does anything, so give us your reasons for wanting to aerate and we'll probably suggest something else. If any of this gets delayed, keep in mind that mowed weeds look like a lawn. Just keep them watered and mowed and you can push this project into fall if you want to. I just bought a house last summer. It's 90% weeds, so I can sympathize. Here is something I put together several years ago to help people like you. Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. 2. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. 3. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything). At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.

So many good ideas, but imo none better than this: "aktillery9 I always try to decide how I want to feel in the room; cozy, energized etc. I usually look through decorated rooms to see what I like for inspiration and what goes with I already have." What time of day do you use that room, btw? Illuminated with sunshine or almost entirely with artificial lights? That'd be a big factor in what colors I chose. Imo, your sofa seems quite nice, virtually classic and extremely comfy. What's not to like? I could copy in many pictures of beautiful rooms lightened up with a pale sofa. As you said, the rug is a must--you love it and it is classic. Great start. Atkillery's advice to look for pictures of what you like is the best I could give. Don't just look at pix of today's generic unisex, fusion commercial/hotel/residential look in currently commercially available colors and patterns, though. They're good for replicating that look, but handsome as it is, it doesn't seem to be what you're going for. (?) My suggestion is to also go the library and get books and magazines from other eras and educate yourself on what you want by falling in love with various rooms and identifying common elements. Photocopying everything you like and then laying it all out can be enormously helpful. That's how I learned that I don't like strongly contrasting elements above about sofa height, at most--really best on the floor. But above sofa height, whether it's a white, light, medium, or dark room, it's blending harmony (perked with interesting art and other accessories) all the way with me, with only just enough contrast to make it work. That's just me. But since there're always so many different looks I love, like, and dislike, I would never, ever have known that about myself without this exercise. Fortunately, it's a lot of fun. :)

I certainly agree with Flores Artscape on the succulents for your area - very trouble-free. Since you'll be doing this over time as well, you can save money by buying young plants or growing from seeds. One thing to keep in mind is the estimated size of the plants at maturity. Some folks plant things that will have a 20 foot canopy spread within 5 feet of each other and they look crowded and have disease issues within a few years. Some things you can grow from seed or offset in addition to the succulents Flores mentioned: 1) Palms: You can grow date palms from date pits. Get some from your local grocery store and take the pits out. Germinating them is easy and you can have them in pots until they are ready to go in the ground. The California Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera) and Mexican fan palm (Washingtonia robusta) can be readily grown from seeds you find under plants already lining the streets or on a friend's property. They sprout pretty easily and have very few issues in your climate. 2) Bananas: There are so many types, but dwarf cavendish and ice cream banana are my two favorites. The dwarf is small but tastes just like the grocery store and the ice cream banana is large and tastes like vanilla. The plants are relatively cheap and you can divide a clump if you want to spread them to another area. The one drawback is that they love water, so use them near irrigation if you have it. Otherwise, watering them will become a chore. 3) Bamboo: Can be divided, but use a clumping variety vs. a running variety. The running varieties can get outright invasive. I personally prefer giant timber bamboo as a large windbreak/privacy screen here, but you may need one that is more drought-tolerant.