It won't let me add more than 1 picture in my original post

North, south, east, or west of Hudson's Bay?

Just kidding, but we need to know where you live. Parts of Canada are well south of parts of the US. If you're in the Pacific area then I can call in a specialist for you.

I will respond to two things you said briefly. 1) NEVER ROTOTILL to prepare for a lawn, and 2) NEVER SEED a cool season grass seed in the spring. So there, I've simplified that much of your issue. Having said that, if you are in the far west, those rules would not be in upper case.

NOW is the time to get going on this. Canada is a little euro with respect to using herbicides, but find something you can use on broadleaf weeds. Down here we use Weed-b-Gon or Weed-b-Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis Killer. Spot spray the weeds only, but I can see that will be a general spray for these first times. Don't use a granular herbicide, because that truly is a bane to the environment. No weed-n-feed products, ever.

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

Mulch mow weekly at your mower's highest setting.

Fertilize on Victoria Day, Labour Day, and Remembrance Day (ish). The last one should go down after the grass has stopped growing but before it freezes hard. The idea is to pump nitrogen into the roots but not into the shoots where they would die from the upcoming freeze. Use a high N fast release fertilizer like urea.

Use a preemergent herbicide when the forsythia first blooms in your neighborhood. Use it immediately again if you get a heavy spring rain. Use it in the fall if you get a heavy rain.

Use a broadleaf post emergent herbicide in mid April (or a month after the grass awakens), and again in mid September. If you can stick to the watering plan and the seeding admonition above, you should not get crabgrass again.

Dennis - looking closely at those pics don't you think this yard might be a good candidate for a complete redo aka nuke it and start over? Might end up being easier for the OP with better results.

never rototill?

a number of other internet sources say otherwise.

what's your reason?

Rose, I know! Crazy, huh? There are even some books and magazine articles that say to rototill first. Scott's website says to rototill. Here's one of the problems with rototilling. It is impossible to hold a hand held rototiller steady. When it hits dry soil, a rock, a root, or a pipe the tiller will buck up and sometimes out of the ground. That leaves a spot where the soil does not get tilled to the exact same depth as the rest of the ground. Or when the tiller hits a wet spot or sand it will bog down and dig deeper than the rest of the ground. So underground you have a profile of firm (untilled) soil that is not level. Then when you level the surface of the soil the depth of soft soil will be different everywhere. As the soft soil resettles to form a new soil structure, a process that takes 3 years, the soil will settle unevenly at the surface. You will see this immediately and it will worsen over that 3 year period. The person mowing the yard will notice the mower hits hills and holes along the mowing path. If you have bermuda grass, centipede, or creeping bentgrass, all grasses mowed low, then hitting a hole with the mower wheels will scalp the lawn. Having said that, a rototiller mounted on a tractor works much better because it doesn't bounce up out of the ground. Usually only farmers have that equipment.

Here's a second reason not to rototill. This issue will repair itself over a few months. It has to do with the microbial life in the soil. The bacteria, fungi, and other critters all live at very specific stratified depths. The surface dwellers cannot survive if they are buried. The root zone critters cannot survive at the surface, and those living below the roots will die above their zone. When you fluff up the soil with a rototiller, you kill off most of the population of microbes.

This reason sort of sums up the previous two. Mature soils have a capillary structure which allows air and water into the soil. This develops over that 3 year period following any turning experience like rototilling or double-digging. The structure is created by roots, insects, worms, and even the invisible microbes.

Here's a third reason not to rototill. You just don't need to. Grass seed sprouts at the surface of the ground, not buried 6 inches down. If the soil seems to hard to even sprout grass seed, I suggest you mulch it first for a minimum of 2 weeks. It's amazing what that does to soften the soil. We just did that recently in preparation for a paver garden path. The soil, which was pitchfork hard to begin with, softened nicely so we could use a shovel and even hand diggers to get it right for our project.

Hey everyone, thank you for the reply, and I am sorry for my slow response back,

to the first response. I live in Ontario, Canada, in Petawawa specifically, so its about 2 hours north east of Ottawa. Thank you for the information overload.

If I start doing the heavy watering, and take your advice, would the grass roots start to over take all the weeds, say for next year? I was planning on using fall fertilizer when the time comes, because it already seems like it is a lost cause for now this season.

and yes, for deniel's response, wouldn't the nuke idea play out better instead of fighting the tough fight? how would I go about doing that, so I can start fresh, is it pretty much mulching that lets me start fresh?