You purchased the house last year so there is, I'm supposing, no information on what the lawn in that area did last year at this time....maybe the same thing you are experiencing. It could be the ground is hard in the area and doesn't accept moisture down to a level that the lawn uses it to its advantage. In other words, maybe the lawn isn't getting water in that area and pays the price. Too much, is as bad as too little. Too much and too little causes short roots which, when the summer heat hits it, dries it up fast. You didn't say whether you fertilize regularly. Turf grass is, like any other plant, needs food. A regular schedule of fertilizing keeps a lawn in good health and even if grubs invade, a turf that is in the best of health can fight it off. I suggest you do an over layering of compost/triple mix or good topsoil...about 1/2" to 1" and do this every spring ....and fall. Then an overseeding at the same times. What this does is builds organic matter into the soil, improves the soil to absorb and hold moisture and results in a tough turf that can stand up to the dry periods or the over-wet times. To find out how much soil/compost to buy, simply measure the area you wish to cover...length times width...IN FEET. Multiply that by the depth IN INCHES the soil you wish to put down...and multiply that figure by 3.....and divide by 1000. The result will tell you exactly, in cubic yards, how much soil to buy. Thus, if you were to cover the entire 1000 square feet with 1" of soil....1000 sq ft X 1" = 1000, then multiply that by 3...= 3000 divided by 1000 = 3 cubic yards of soil would cover the area. By overlayering 1" of soil over the lawn every spring and fall will improve the drainage and water containment quality and improve the lawn's ability to grow grass in difficult times. A good combination of seeds for northern areas is" 40% Kentucky Blue, 30% perennial ryegrass and 30% fescue. This combo makes for a tough lawn that stands up to most what nature throws at it.

It's a hatch. You'll need a ladder. Might be there instead of pull-down stairs b/c it was built cheap, or the ceiling might be too high, or the space might not be big enough for pull-down stairs. We have one in part of our house b/c the space isn't big enough, and 9'7" was higher than the vast majority of pull-down stairs will go.

@anne_ct "That maybe what the book says...but I found the errant G: drive nicely tucked at the bottom of the "My Pictures" folder under "Libraries"." I don't want to get too sidetracked here, but the Libraries are essentially folders full of shortcuts. They are not the actual files, folders, or drives, but references to their real locations only. You could put another computer on the network inside say, Libraries/Pictures, but that computer is not actually in Pictures. As well, if you delete it there, it does not delete the actual file, folder, drive, or computer that's being referenced. To test, see if you can drag a D: drive, or your CD drive into your actual Pictures directory. You can't - indeed it's impossible. But you can drop it as a shortcut into anything that's in Libraries, although it doesn't explicitly say that it's just a shortcut. See : Windows 7 Libraries: Frequently Asked Questions

We bought simple heavy duty black platform beds from Amazon for our camp and used memory foam mattresses. 1 king, 2 full and 1 single. If you go that route make sure you pay attention to the weight limit on the frame and the depth of the memory foam layer in the mattress. You put the frame together in the room and the mattress are vacuumed packed and expand when you break the package open. We bought the 12 inch mattresses. The only thing we did extra was to put a sheet of plywood on top of the slats. They do feel a little different sleeping on than a traditional mattress, but we sleep on them 5 nights a week and we are comfortable. My husband has a bad back and he has no complaints. We bought the 2 full for the one bedroom so ether a couple can each take a bed or our 4 grade school grands can sleep together in the room.