Brian, you have 3...no, four things against you for attaining a good lawn and its a quetion whether you have the will and the way to correct it. First off, the trees. Trees are notoriously thirsty--they drink what moisture in the ground and leave little for grass above. Since most trees' roots are within 18" of the surface of the soil, you can see that not much moisture can escape them. So we must invent a way to help the ground retain moisture. Two, clay soil. It can grow many plants successfully---but I don't think a good lawn can be obtained unless we try to change what a clay soil does---retains too much water in the wrong places. Three, a hillside. Since water retention is going to be a problem the grass stands little chance of keeping what moisture is given by you---or by the Man Upstairs. Four, Sunlight. Some good, some bad, some very bad. One at a time: Trees, the grass below has to be one that will stand up to how the tree allows sunlight to come through. There are different grasses for sun and shade. Sometimes they are a mix....but you can buy for special places. Clay soil: To help it retain moisture, you must try to get into it some organic matter. Compost, hay, straw, newspaper, old dry grass clippings ..and many other amendments including peat moss. Compost is the one leading soil amendment which can help your grass grow. Organic material aids the soil into water retention. It will soak up water and help it retain water over the wider area. It will help break up the clay soil. Getting it into the soil might be a problem. If the ground is not thought to be any good, then rototil the organics into it. Go down at least 6 - 12 inches and incorporate the material as you turn it over. At the same time look to improving its drainage. You can read for yourself about "compost". Hillside: Unless you reduce the grade, you will always have loss of moisture through run-off unless you improve the soil ability to hold onto water. Sunlight: Might the trees be pruned in such a way to allow more sun penetration. Shade is always going to be the problem. Unless you can improve sunlight in shady areas, you will forever have a problem keeping the grass. Feeding the grass will help it grow and retain its greeness. High nitrogen lawn fertilizer, given in spring and during a schedule through the season is called for. If you can see yourself purchasing some compost, it can be given to your lawn over the surface twice a year...spring and fall. Fall is the best time to overseed--it has less competition and the cooler weather prompts the grass to grow. For any area you can figure out how much topsoil or compost you need to cover a particular area. Multipy the width of the area, times the length of the area in feet...giving you square feet. Multipy that times the depth in inches....and divide that figure by 1000 and multiply by 3. That gives you exactly the number of cubic yards needed to cover the area. For that, do not add ontop of the grass any more than 2" at any one time. More will suffocate the grass. Sod. Sod cannot be grown ontop of grass that is presently there. Now, if this is all too much to think about, then consider putting down some Dutch White Clover which will take over a lawn and needs no fertilizer--it takes the free nitrogen right out of the air. It stands up dog urine....but... wait....you have shade. Clover will not grow in shade. So that's out. I guess its grass or nothing.

Just so we don't have to go jumping around the Internet, here are your pictures

Wait for autumn, much easier to rehabilitate then. Treat as needed. If you have weeds, kill the weeds. If you have moss, punch holes in the lawn. For heavy soil, topdress with sharp sand, for lighter soils, use a sandy loam. If there is a lot of moss kill it and rake out. Scarify old lawns to remove moss and thatch. Overseed if you have significant bare patches from the moss or weeds. Brown grass should come back green with cool weather and rain. If you have heavy shade from overhanging trees or shrubs, think about cutting them back. Trees and large shrubs will also suck water out of the soil so pay special attention to watering these areas. You might want to overseed shady areas with a special shade grass to help them next year. Fertilise when the weather is suitable for grwoing grass. Don't fertilise when the grass is struggling in a heatwave, you'll just encourage weeds. If the lawn is a real mess and you have a lot of weedy grasses, you might want to kill it and reseed. Or turf since you don't have a huge area. This would give you the oppurtunity to seriously improve the soil which will be the secret to having a really good lawn in the future. If you are doing this, start now by killing or removing the old grass. Sprinklers will need to be repositioned several times to cover a lawn the size of your's. Plan on at least 15 minutes in each spot. The soil is probably baked hard right now, you might have to give it just 5 or 10 minutes in each spot, then move on to give the water chance to soak in. To be worthwhile you should apply about an inch of water every week or two when there is little rain, for heavy soils. On lighter soils, half an inch once or twice a week is better. You may need more to keep your lawn really green in a heatwave, it becomes close to impossible and the grass may scorch off anyway. A typical sprinkler would put down about an inch per hour, which would use about a cubic metre of water if you're on metered water. That could mean twn or twenty quid every week to water your lawn adequately.

Hi mkbobba. I live in Holly Springs so I can tell you a little bit about brands and where to get them. You're extremely close on being late for pre-emergents. October has been fairly warm with the exception of the last couple of days so that plays in your favor. You really need to put it down now. I have used both dimension and stonewall with similar results. I use Lesco products and they sell a 0-0-7 dimension at home depot and at John Deere Landscapes. JDL also sells stonewall if you want to go that route. There is a JDL off of 64 like you're going to Jordan Lake. It's about 10 minutes from the Beever Creek shopping center. That is also where I get my fertilizer. They'll recommend a 24-0-11 with iron which I have never tried so I don't know how well it works. I used a 32-0-8 with iron and had GREAT success this year. To answer some of your questions, it is too late to fertilize. You'll want to put down a pre-emergent but nothing with nitrogen in it. That is the first number on a bag of fertilizer. You could probably put down an organic if you like. You could use milorganite or put down alfalfa pellets or cracked corn. I like to use one of the latter 2 at this time of year and again in the spring when the grass is about to come out of dormancy. I wouldn't overseed. Once your bermuda gets growing, it will fill in. Don't waste your time. I'm not a soil expert so I couldn't tell you anything about what sort of lime to apply. I've never applied it and I've never taken a soil test. Below are some pictures of my yard from this summer. Let me know if you have any questions about where to get what.