For that size you might want to hire a guy with a tractor and box blade to resurface the entire area. With no obstructions he can easily do that in a morning. That will leave all the surface looking the same. Leave it up to him whether to bring in more soil or have some removed. Why? He will determine the way your garden drains. He might need to build up or haul away for best drainage. You might find such a person working as a landscaper. Find someone who specializes in large project, not necessarily homes. If you have any new apartment buildings or new subdivisions going in, ask the superintendent who he's using to do the "Finish grading." He'll be the one who repairs all the damage done by the construction. After that you won't need another machine. All you need is seed, a roller, and a hose to water it. By far the best time of year to renovate is in the fall. Now is a poor time time and getting worse all the time with the approach of summer. New grass has a hard time making it through the summer heat. For you in Central PA I would start this project in August. Ideally you'll have new grass by the end of Sept and be on your way. Until then you should be able to live with the "mixed" lawn you'll eventually have. Might be a lot of crabgrass, but who cares. You'll reap the big reward after it's done right and seeded with good seed in the fall.

It could be a simple as more shade in the back which might require a different type of grass or different care. If you use RoundUp to kill the grass, you should come through and rake the dead stuff out before seeding. If you are concerned about your back raking a large area you can rent a power rake, verticutter, or slit seeder. These machines have vertical cutting blades and can be adjusted to just slice the top of the soil. The machine will chew up all the dead foliage and you can rake or blow it away into a compost pile. Then you can seed right on top of that. I suggest using a roller after seeding to ensure good contact between the seed and the soil. Then water it 3x per day for about 5 - 10 minutes each time just to keep the seed moist. The good grasses for NY are the fescues (which germinate in 2 weeks), Kentucky bluegrass (germinates in 3 weeks), and/or rye grass (germinates in 1 week). If you get a mix of grasses be sure to water 3x daily long enough to get the slowest germinating seed to germinate. Once you have 80 of the seed germinated, then you can start to back off on the frequency and move up on the duration. Ideally a mature lawn will get a full inch of water per week, all at one time, during the hottest heat of summer. The rest of the year you can adjust the frequency to 2 weeks, 3 weeks and 4 weeks but keep the timing to deliver a full inch. KBG is a great grass for full sun. I goes dormant in winter and can go dormant during severe heat in the summer. KBG will spread all by itself without reseeding every year. Fescue is a great grass in sun and can tolerate some shade. It does not go dormant. It becomes more dense with annual overseeding for the thin areas in the fall. Rye is a full sun type grass and needs annual reseeding to remain dense. Unless you need to change your drainage, you don't need new soil. You can repair your soil easily with at least one application per year of organic fertilizer. My favorite organic fertilizer is straight alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). Cost is about $12.50 for a 50-pound bag. Apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I like it because it works and because it costs a lot less to use than commercially bagged organic fertilizers.

ntxt Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn-Boy

Welcome to being the latest of the Lawn Whackos. You're in great company...with the rest of all of us here. You're not clueless, you're just starting out. As you learn, this will change. $150 for 500 square feet works out to $0.30 a square foot. For that, I'd come up there and install it for you. :-) All you need is a good rake, several hours, and seed. Kill off the crabgrass (this may take several tries with Roundup as that stuff seems to be able to survive nuclear war). Once dead, rake the whole area clear and get the soil scratched up well. Perfectly-workable-case, get any good seed mix off the shelf. Best-case, listen to Bestlawn or others for suggestions. Seed. Reverse your rake and lightly cover the seed. Water two to four times daily for short periods. There you go, lawn, in one to four weeks, depending. The same kind you'd've gotten from TruGreen. Cost...about $8 for the seed if you buy way too much for overseeding purposes. $20 for the rake. And you get to keep the rake. You'll get weeds, that's assured. You would have with their seeding as well. REALLY horrible section between the sidewalk and the road of which maybe ten feet by thirty feet needs to be re-done. That's called a hell strip because it's just hell on lawns. :-) That area frequently requires some help, extra water through the year, and reseeding. It just doesn't flourish too well under most conditions. Once all this works, we'll be glad to wean you off TruGreen and get you a much nicer lawn. :-)