"I'm not sure I agree with the idea that the lawn MUST be re-seeded, unless the OP has decided he wants a KBG lawn. The Perennial Rye that was in the original mixture will eventually predominate over the KBG, so he will end up with a mostly PRG lawn. Some people do go that route. Not sure what the recommendation is for upstate NY." The perennial rye cultivars in that mix do not spread. Any bare areas now will be bare in the fall unless some of the KBG made it and starts to spread. I said anything that survives into the fall should do well, but how much grass is left at the end of August is anyone's guess. There is nothing wrong with a PR lawn, they look great, and are easy to overseed if need be. Upstate NY is KBG country, and if it gets too cold PR can die off due to cold kill, but I have read this isn't as much as an issue as once believed. I happen to think monospecies lawns are easier to start and take care of regardless of what type you pick. My whole point is this; 2500 square feet isn't a lot of area to seed again. Most of the work has been done. Instead of having a weed filled patchy lawn, kill everything and do it over. The grass will do much better, the weed pressure will be minimal, and the lawn will be very consistent and thick into the winter.

LOL! Your rant about making one's own laundry soap, etc was toooo funny and ITA :) I'm also not a fan of the low water band wagon. The only FL experience I've had is my mother's machine. She's NOT happy with hers :( I AM VERY happy with my Whirlpool Cabrio TL NON-HE machine (with agitator). It's model number WTW6200. Had the 6400 model, TL HE. You can do a search with my name or Cabrio and read why I didn't like it, but basically it didn't clean. Like you, my top 4 priorities are CLEAN laundry without having to stand on my head and stack greased BBs to get it! 3.8 cubic feet, auto water level (more water than the HE TL) and 4 other water levels for you to manually adjust. Also has a delay wash that I find useful. Don't have the dryer so I can't comment on that. Good luck! Monica

OK, I'm game to start... Your soil test results show that there has been way too much unnecessary fertilising going on in your gardens. You say "Mom used to spend a lot of money on miracle grow garden soil and some kind of rose fertilizer. She would just give that to (every) thing growing in the yard." And " I figured the bottle brush was needing some too, so i poured about 2 or 3 pounds of epsom salt around the tree and waited." There's really no reason for you to throw around fertilisers willy-nilly, without knowing the reason for it. For your bottle-brush (Callistemon) specifically, they hate pretty much ANY fertiliser, but especially phosphorous, which will kill them dead. And your soil test indicates very high levels of phosphorous. Personally, I'd cut that plant down to about 6" high and see if it re-sprouts. They survive this treatment very well and grow back big and fast. (Unless it's already past the point of saving.) In the meantime, I'd stop using any bought chemical fertilisers and continue with what you're doing now, just adding leaf mulch, compost and maybe a light dusting of blood/bone meal. Then, in a year or so, get another soil test done for comparison with this one.

If I may, without offense meant, (I have a less than perfect designed kitchen too) say that when you get a new stove in here, the rest of the kitchen will look worse. :( The stove and kitchen ground each other. Having a new appliance will show off how the rest of the kitchen is over due for an upgrade. Again, no offense intended. If I was in this situation, I would figure out a way to get a new stove in that space and it may involve cutting off and closing off the cabinet at that corner there. If you don't have to accommodate that L shaped corner with the cabinets, it might make it easier to get something in there. Your brother doesn't have much counter space to the left of the stove anyways. A freestanding range can be a replacement if you don't have to make allowances for the L shape in the counter. You also are now freed up to buy a more standard size range instead of trying to get an odd size range in the space. I have a freestanding range in my oddball kitchen. I have nothing to the left of the range and I have a portable cabinet to the right of it. Best I can do in the space. Take the counter out and replace with something appropriate for the space (it's small, probably wouldn't cost too much), have the cabinets painted or sanded and re-stained and replace all the hardware with something pretty. The cabinets themselves look like there are in ok condition from the photo. New sink too. An undercounter sink for the new counter. If one is handy, some of this work can be DIY to save costs. I hope I didn't offend. It has potential to do better.