Hello all! Finally finished most of my major indoor renovations and being stuck at home with the virus, I'm looking at planning a major re-work of the back yard. The previous owner did not take care of it well and we just basically cleaned up where we could and fought back the weeds and vines.

Here are some photos of the yard: https://imgur.com/a/QEbmCia

Currently the lawn is about 60' x 40' area. Overall there are dips and hill everywhere and it is not level in any way. There are a mix of grasses that grow at different rates and a large section quickly gets overrun with weeds and vines that have to be pulled out almost weekly. The neighbors yards are all significantly higher than your yard. We did start creating a rough plant-bed area filled with mulch, but haven't been able to finish it off.

Near the foundation, the ground is significantly high than the rest of the yard, which isn't bad, but is almost too high in places as it raises above the basement window sill. There are lots of hills and valleys so it definitely is not smooth. There are two poorly routed drains, a downspout coming from the gutter and a sump pump coming out of the basement wall. An old AC unit is near the current drains on a concrete pedastal.

A back corner of the lawn is very uneven with almost not grass. Several stumps and posts were removed and an old rotting shed was cut down last fall. Currently nothing is growing here and there are a lot of holes (stumps) and dips and rises. Mostly only weeds and vines grow here.

The flower bed with mulch we put in is about the only area under control, though we have some patches of peonies and day lillies that we are going to rip out as they've been left unchecked.

I was looking for some advice on the lawn as the currently plan is a fairly long project:

1. Properly (and smoothly) grade yard away from the foundation

2. Properly level the yard (including ripping up our mulch flower beds as needed, though we would like to keep the lilac bush.

3. Get rid of the weeds and vines as well as get our grass growing properly again.

4. Add an underground drain about 10-15 feet away from the house. Including dealing with our yard being much lower than the neighbors (perhaps a retaining wall).

5. Add a patio + pergola in the northwest corner of the yard by the neighbors garage.

At this point #4 and #5 are stretch goals, but we can at least get the yard prepped for this maybe in the fall or next year.

I really need some good advice on where to begin even tackling where to even begin. Because of the state of the yard, top-dressing really isn't option. I know tilling isn't a good idea as we'll just end up with a lump yard. At this point is it just worth getting rid of the sod/grass, getting 1-3 done, and then starting the grass from scratch.

#4 and #5 I can handle on my own as I've done this several times before.....I'm just at a bit of a loss as to where to start with #1 - #3

Like I said, just in the early stages of planning out the scope, but I'm really not sure where to start here. Any advice is welcome.