First a disclaimer, seeding in spring is not the best time to do so. You will be much more successful in late summer/early fall. In spring you will be fighting weeds, and your young grass will have to face the heat and humidity of summer as well as the lawn disease that can accompany it. If you choose to seed now, you were warned. Moss in your lawn typically means you get a good deal of shade, the area is damp, and your soil is possibly acidic. You say you had a soil test and your pH was around 7. I have a problem with this number. It is the rare soil in the east that is perfectly neutral unless it has been getting regular liming. If it is 7, then that's fine, and no liming is necessary, cool season turf actually prefers soil to be slightly acidic 6.3-6.8 is a nice range. Also your soil test should have included many more things, pH is only part of the problem. A lot of people think they have compacted soil. You might have it, but odds are it is just unhealthy soil that has an imbalanced Mg:Ca ratio, or very low organic matter, or a combination of things. Aeration is good for compacted soil, but it's not the end all be all. A lot of people prefer to use liquid aeration treatments that contain Yucca, surfactants, kelp, and a few other things. You can buy these solutions or make your own. If you do core aerate or don't, I recommend power raking your yard. If you core aerate, the power rake will break up the cores and fill in the holes to a degree with loosened soil. If you don't core aerate, the power rake will loosen up the top layer of soil, and remove thatch and the dead moss. Yeah, dead, you will want to kill the moss with Moss Out, which is a cheap and effective solution of ferrous sulfate, basically an iron solution. If you do core aerate you will likely bring up some dormant weed seeds, so be forewarned now. If you want to add organic matter there are many ways, one of the easiest is using Milorganite. Using it after core aeration will add it directly to the soil as it should fill up the core holes. The power rake will also help incorporate it. KBG and perennial rye is not a very shade tolerant grass in general. Tall fescue is probably your best choice, since it germinates and establishes fairly quickly, does better in the transition zone, and is the most shade tolerant of the three. It would be advisable to pick cultivars that do best in your area and in shade (the current NTEP trials have a shade trial and it takes place in fairly dense shade). You can use any starter fertilizer you want, I like to do half amounts at seeding, and the other half after the second mow. Also, if you can afford it, I recommend putting Tupersan down at the same time. It will prevent crabgrass germination, but it only lasts 4-6 weeks, so you will have to apply it a few times to get the protection you want. The most important part of the process is watering. You have to keep your seeds moist for at least 2 weeks, and your young grass well watered. This means lightly watering 2-3 times a day for the first two weeks. Then you can lessen the frequency as the grass gets older. Personally I think you are rushing the whole process. If you can live with what you have now till late summer, you will have more time to get everything squared away. A new soil test is in order if you can't find the results of your previous ones.

"Now my lawn doesn't look that bad but because of the different grass types the growth of each type is all over the place making my lawn uneven." Fernalfer, that's exactly the reason you want start over. There are often other reasons, but yours is one prime example. It diminishes turf quality (appearance) and often requires mowing more often to maintain uniformity. Third week of August is too late. You want to allow 2 or 3 weeks for additional spraying. 1st week - spray, 2nd week - spray again. There might have to be a third week for a third application. That "R" word stuff is the only herbicide you can use and seeds right afterward. Others will not allow seeding for several weeks following application. If you don't want to use herbicide at all, there are a couple more options. Vinegar/water solution acts as an organic non-selective herbicide like that "R" word stuff. It also will require several applications for a complete kill. You can rent a sod cutter. It's more work and more expensive but sure is faster rather than repeated herbicide applications and waiting 2-3 weeks before seeding can take place. You can try smothering the grass by covering it with black (or dark colored) plastic to solarize and deny sunlight. This will also take several weeks and you'd have to lay the plastic very soon, but it's cheaper than a sod cutter. Yep, you want to take care and do everything right as best you can. Cutting cost doesn't factor into the equation unfortunately. I, at least, cannot suggest short cuts, as fault for anything less than success could easily be directed at me. Besides that, it's not in your best interest. Peat moss (Canadian Sphagnum) is my personal favorite growing medium. However, it is a lot more expensive than compost, which is also excellent and a great soil amendment. Please forgive if I don't enumerate all the steps and methods right at the moment. I'll post a new thread on the subject tomorrow and others will chime in with their advice also, so you'll get a complete rundown of your options. In the meanwhile, there are several threads already on the first 2 or 3 pages of the board that are extremely helpful. I am interpreting "50-60 sunlight" to mean your grass around the trees does receive at least 4-6 hours of sunlight, right? If I'm right, my suggestion to Vkolte01 above will work fine for you also. If I'm wrong, please inform. Please let us know if we can help with anything else.

It looks great! You can actually try to seed the areas next to the black driveway now--that area stays so warm that sprout is possible even quite late in the season, and areas near tarmac are hesitant to sprout with the rest of the lawn due to the heat. Water by hand twice a day. Or just dormant seed it. The rest is a perfect candidate for spot dormant seeding. Pictures always miss the more subtle green sprouts that your eye picks up easily. I'm sure it looks fantastic when you're standing there! Spring renovations can be a problem, but in an area that small it shouldn't be too much of an issue. You're going to get a ton of weeds, so I'd plan on using Tupersan or Tenacity as a pre-emergent when seeding (neither harm grass seeds). The grass will be very delicate during the summer since it didn't have fall and early spring to grow roots, so you'll need to water it regularly and way more often than an established lawn--otherwise, it'll die. On three hundred square feet, that's easy.

Update #1 I know I haven't technically gotten into the "lawn care" part of my backyard makeover, but I figured I'd give y'all an update anyway. My attack plan is to build our paver patio first, then work on reseeding the lawn when it gets cooler in a month or so. Here's where things stand after my first weekend working on the yard. See my original post for a 'before' pic of the yard. My goal for the weekend was a little too ambitious (especially considering it was 100 degrees here in Richmond this weekend): Take out the garden fence; cut down the garden plants; move the wood pile; remove the deck. The garden fence was waaaaay overbuilt with each post buried 3-4 feet down with two feet of concrete at the bottom. I had planned on pulling them out but I ended up just cutting the posts off about 8 inches below grade. The deck was similarly over built, with joists about every 10 inches. The guy used nails to build it instead of screws, which meant I have to cut on either side of each joist with a circular saw or else pry each board up. I'm about 2/3 done with the deck. The wood pile was a beast. About 200 cu ft of wood. I built a new rack for it and stored it against the back fence. This was the most time consuming job of the weekend and the hottest. That stretch between the old location of the wood pile and the new is only in the shade at dawn and after 6pm. We also got the two stumps ground on either side of the yard. They were ground to 8 inches below grade. This week I'll be spraying RoundUp against the fence on the left for the new raised beds and building those beds. I'll be filling them with the soil I excavate for the patio where the deck used to be. One quick question that didn't get answered above: Would this power rake rental from Home Depot do the trick for getting an inch into my soil to loosen everything up? It looks like the tines are loose and pivot on the central axel. Seems like I might need something with fixed tines. Any advice is appreciated.