Thanks for the response, grass, definitely not what I wanted to hear... Pretty much the entire yard is like this - about an acre of "grass" (1.3 acre lot, about 1 acre of "grass"). Spent over $700 on seed last fall, and the irrigation was a complete nightmare, between timers not working, sprinklers only covering about 1/4 the radius advertised, sprinkler heads freezing up, etc, etc. Most of the good germination came with the late fall rains that we had. I am really not looking forward to all of this all over again. Erosion is most definitely a problem - it is even occurring underneath the snow. With some of the rains we had last week, some dirt was washed up onto the driveway, even though the entire yard is covered in a blanket of snow. I am not sure how the blankets would work - looks like it would cost about $3k for the size of my yard. I have already spent about $8k on top soil, and grading the yard, which was well over the amount I had budgeted. A new round of seeding is already getting to be very expensive. I really want the cultivators I picked out and used last fall. Could straw work?? That is what the people who did the top soil and grading suggested, but from reading other stuff on here and everything was under the impression that straw is optional, and an added expense that I could try and avoid... This is really causing a lot of stress. I want this to turn out well, but am already well over-budget....

Why the delay on lawn care this spring? The most important thing I believe is mowing. You should mow now and only take off 1/3rd of the grass blade. If you let it get any longer chances are it might start thinning out, and later you'd be cutting too much off. I'd cut this weekend, and then next weekend spray the ground ivy. You'll want to spray it when it starts getting its purple flowers anyway because thats one of its weak times during the growing season. Use weed-b-gon max, as that will be the one that will nail the ground ivy. I'd spray and then core aerate as if you core aerate first, the cores might be covering the plant.

Where do you live? I'm sensing the Chicago area. What kind of grass do you have (assuming fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and/or rye)? Now is the time to fix it. Early spring (January to March) can work, but any later and you're back to having a crabgrass lawn again. NOW is the time. Most problems in lawns come from watering wrong? If you were not watering at all, that's often much better than watering too frequently. Did you water at all?

I'm a little hard on people who come here claiming to have been reading THIS forum and then presenting a plan that flies in the face of what we talk about. Had you been reading THIS forum you would not have already killed your grass. As j4 has mentioned, this is a poor time to be renovating a lawn. Today is better than tomorrow and that will continue until September, but really (REALLY) early fall is by far and away the best time to renovate northern grasses. Simply keeping the weeds mowed goes a long way toward a nice looking, and playable lawn. I've been mowing weeds for going on 3 years as my St Augustine creeps back from nothing. Weeds are green. Don't rototill. I did some historical research to see who first advocated rototilling. I wanted someone to blame. The old gardening books from the 40s through 70s advise against tilling for a lawn. More recently you do see articles advocating it. Even the Scott's website says to start with rototilling. In their case I have to question their motives, because you are likely to buy more products (from them) if you start by rototilling. I never did find the root of the problem, but rototilling will give you a bumpy surface from Day 1 and continue until about Day 1,000. After about 3 years the soil has settled, developed a firm structure, and should not get any bumpier. Mowing a bumpy lawn is not fun. Don't bring in new soil unless you are sure your drainage is poor or you have low spots that hold water for more than a day after a long rain event. New soil will ALWAYS change your drainage. What you don't want is water getting dammed up by the lawn and backflowing into the house or basement. Maybe it's an optical illusion but it looks like the soil goes up from the walkway. It looks like it goes up through the plants, up past the bricks, and finally crowns in the center of the yard. It should start to fall away immediately from the walkway and slope gently down to the front sidewalk. If I'm seeing that correctly you need to have about 3 cubic yards of soil hauled away (as a start). Your idea to bring in new soil is very common. Again I'm not sure where that got started. It is also a commonly held belief that you need to topdress with sand or top soil every year. Golf courses do this but they are trying to counter attack a very specific fungus that does not occur for homeowners. Golf courses don't have basements either. If you think you need new soil because it will be a better product than you currently have, it is NOT. Your soil already has all the microbes it needs. New soil has some, but it has been disturbed which kills a bunch of them. Leave well enough alone. If you want to tune up your soil chemistry that can be done with a good soil test. If you want to improve your soil biology, then use organic fertilizers and avoid fungicide and insecticides.