Alabama your yard doesn't look bad at all you don't want to go crazy killing weeds in this heat.be patient hand pick the major ones and don't spray until your yard goes dormant than you can use round up and get a hold on them.then you need to get on pre emergent program.i like stonewall- Prodiamine it's a spring and fall application. Read the Bermuda bible and follow by seasons. I made mistake spraying weeds in the summer before but I guess you live and learn. One more thing do your yard a great service and get a soil test.i see people with high ph and putting down lime.thats a killer. I see people with low phos ,potassium,just putting nitrogen on there yard instead of a balanced fertilzer like 13-13-13. My neighbor had a light green colored yard.one day he ask me what I was putting on my yard.i told him a balanced fertilzer.So I put a one foot square spread of 13 -13 - 13 on his yard and his grass turned bright green and grew great.He listen to me after that and had soil tested low phos,potassium and they told him to use a balanced fertilzer 19-19-19 at 5 lbs per 1000 sq ft.now his whole yard is green and he is a happy camper. Soil test will tell you a lot of good info. Good luck. Tom

It would be best if you can get the plastic up; I'm still finding some in my yard, and I've never figured out the reason it was there in the first place. If you don't like the schleffera and monkey grass, take them out! It's your house now, and you can grow whatever you want to wherever you want it. The people in the forum for your geographical region can give you the best advice for what will grow best for you. There are probably books about gardening in the south that can help you learn, and I recommend that you get a good overall gardening book, like the one at the link. Reader's Digest used to have a really good one, and you might still be able to find it in a used book store. I'd guess you'd be wise to start with your local library and see what they have, then buy the one that's the most helpful. Good luck with all of it! Here is a link that might be useful: garden book

Robert, You can try a program called HVAC-Calc that will allow you to the the Manual J yourself. Since you are doing spray foam and obviously trying to do things right, you'll easily save the cost of the program in savings on not getting an oversized system. I used it myself to do my own Manual J after I saw the one my installer's wholesaler did for my home. They did not take into account any of the things I did like ICFs, low-e double pane windows, and wetblown cellulose. They didn't even bother to get the plan orientation right. How many west facing windows you have can be a big deal when it comes to cooling load. Be prepared to receive some resistance from your installers with what will undoubtably seem like a low number to then. Trust the math. It is also very important that they size the ducts adequately and do returns in all the bedrooms. Many of the pros you'll see on boards like this pride themselves on doing things the right way. It's often very hard to find people like that in the real world. Here is a link that might be useful: HVAC-Calc

just want to put my 2cents on the sofa situation. try home reserve, supposed to last 4ever and cheapest around. have had 2 positives from users here and 1 positive from a designer. no negatives from users just those who can not believe.