First plant is aloe Vera, not an agave... The plant in question looks like San Pedro, does it have roots?

Thanks, gardengal. I think you may be right that the tree was deeply planted. We've never seen a skirt of larger, exposed roots. I have tried to pull dirt and mulch away from the trunk, but it's really tight with roots and almost impossible to do. If you look closely, you can almost see the line on the trunk where the mulch used to be, a couple of inches above where it is now. I don't think I can get the dirt/mulch level any lower, really. Overall, the mulched area is probably only a few inches higher than the surrounding lawn. On your advice, today I added a little compost and a light layer of mulch over those exposed feeder roots. I may post again when I get the soil test results. Thanks again!

I suspect there are steps missing. You are going to till an existing stretch of grass and weeds. After tilling you will have chopped vegetation and a lumpy surface. At some point before sowing you will have to rake, level, roll your area. If your lawn-to-be is on any kind of slope you could be washing your seed to the bottom if you water frequently. Is there enough warmth in the soil now to get the seed to germinate? Are there enough days before the first frosts bring growth rates right down? Are your early October days generally warm and sunny enough to keep things growing? Are your frosts mean enough to heave new plants out of the soil? Being foreign I don't know whether you get lasting snow cover over the winter. If you do, then waiting to spring would let your tilled area settle, the chopped plants to either rot or revive, and the uneven patches to show up. In spring you could deal with any unwanted plants that show up in your lawn area and sow/fertilise to catch the spring flush.

Mbwaldrp If you the homeowner want to independently control humidity setting in AC cooling, then the preferred thermostat is Honeywell Vision Pro IAQ that has "dehumidify on demand" feature. With this stat, comfort r setting is disabled. Second choice would be Trane or AmStd 803 or identical HW 8321 that makes the Trane stat. Comfort R setting is used with this stat. Before I made any changes, you need to take some humidity readings at several different areas in your home at different times of the day. There are too many variables to make a good and accurate answer to your final question. I will say this. If you don't have zoning controls for controlling temperature Between first and second floor, you can expect a temperature differential of up to 10 degrees. This can depend on ductwork design/sizing, insulation/building qualities,whether you have damper control between airflow to first/second floor, and where the thermostat is located. IMO IMO