hi all! i'm a new member...but am a long time "lurker". These forums are absolute great, and thank you all for your awesome & informative posts. OK...so I've finally bit the bullet, and am going to share my story with you - and am begging for help. I've actually lost hope...but this forum, is the only thing that leaves me with an ounce of hope.

OK...so here it is goes (& my apologies in advance for the lengthy post!). We purchased this newly built home 2 years ago (they tore down the old house and rebuilt a new home). The lawn is not that large - we have a front yard which is in 2 parts divided by the driveway (probably total 900 sq ft), then up the side of the house towards the backyard - long & narrow - then the backyard (a total guess but maybe 2000 sq ft), and then the other side of the house which is pretty non-existent (not a foot traffic side of the house). BTW - I can't personally identify grass, but we were told it's KBG.

OK - let's start with the front yard. The lawn was in disgusting condition...i mean, practically dead spots everywhere (these were the majority) & tons of weeds. what else can i say. After much deliberation, confusion, frustration, advice from all of our neighbors, from the local grarden center, a variety of landscapers, etc...we finally just bit the bullet & power raked it all out! eek! I was actually determined to not do this and try to "heal" the grass...but my husband just wanted to pull it all out & resod. So I think that's what we're going to do. I realize now that I probably should've sought all of your help before we decided to do this...but oh well. It's done...so now we just have dirt for the front lawn.

But to get on with the areas that I do desperately need your advice. The backyard isn't "so" bad...well I guess in comparison to the front. The problems are weeds, but minimal compared to the front yard. But we definitely have grubs - not a ton, I don't think, but definitely have them - and it seems that birds, squirrels, and raccoons (the last is according to my husband who's said he's seen them late at night once)LOVE our backyard. We also have giant tall trees in the back that drop tons of tiny acorns (I think they're acorns) and some other thing that looks like prickly balls. I actually hate birds & squirrels...haha! so am hoping, although I'm probably wrong, that once we get a healthy lawn, they might leave and go bother someone else's house. hehe!

Let's start with help #1. What can we do with the semi-OK lawn in the backyard to get it nice, fluffy, and beautiful? We just power raked it (at the highest setting), to try to get rid of some of the dead grass, and hand raked to clean up the acorns, dead leaves, and as many of the nasty little prickly balls as possible. But now I don't know what to do. Should we fertilize? Or buy some grub killing treatment? With my research, I have learned that we will need to wait until the fall to overseed (at which time, I'm sure I'll be back asking for your advice). But what do we do now?

Now help #2 - in the backyard, along our neighbors fence (south side), we always had trouble with the lawn there. It essentially sort of all died, and was just dirt. One of the, I think, 3 landscapers that we used (we realize in hindsight this was one of our biggest faults!) tried to heavily seed this area. Some grass sort of ended up growing, but not anything that I would remotely call a "lawn". So, I told my husband to deep power rake that whole strip along the fence in the same way we devoured the front lawn - so it's all dirt now. What should we do with that section? We have Scotts PatchMaster Sun & Shade Mix - which was actually supposed to be used on the front lawn to repair it. We tried it on a small section about 2 weeks ago...but nothing ended up growing. Because of this, my husband doesn't believe in it and thinks it won't work. I still think it could/will work...and think it failed maybe because the weather over the past several weeks here in NY/NJ was ridiculously cold & there was hardly any sunshine. Can we use this on this part of the backyard? That section doesn't seem to get as much shade as the rest of the lawn, because of the tall, old trees overhead. Is this a good method, or should we go with something else?

OK...I'll stop there for now before I start talking about hte 2 sides of the house. I hope you guys can help...and that a year or 2 from now, I will be able to post one of those amazing "before & after" posts! :)

Thanks in advance...eagerly waiting for some advice!