Hi, welcome to Gardenweb.

Your pics:
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Since you can't do much now, you can do a few fairly simple things that will give you a great start
for next summer. This is probably a blessing in disguise, as the cliché goes, since waiting is
probably the best thing for this yard. It doesn't look like anything "good" is growing there,
although I certainly couldn't identify everything in the pics.

You can lay some newspaper or cardboard where you want flower beds, walk on it a bit to get it flat
to the ground if you need to, and cover with 3-4" of mulch. This will smother existing weeds and
prevent new weeds from growing. It should be ready to plant flowers next year. In areas that aren't
too weedy right now, you could dig a few holes in later this fall and get a few things started.
Investigate the term lasagna gardening if you would like to read more about this method.

I would lay newspaper in the planter box and fill it with about 3/4 compost then the rest mulch,
ready to be awesome next year.

If you want something pretty for this year, it's really easy to find something with beautiful foliage,
like a coleus and put it in a pot in the shade. It won't dry out fast enough to seem like a chore and
the beautiful leaves are cheery every day, no deadheading to do. A pot of impatiens or wax begonias
will also keep blooming in the shade without being fussed over. Potted lettuce might be a shade-
friendly edible to try in a pot, not much roots to them.

In the 2nd pic, it looks like there's supposed to be a grass lawn to the left of the shrub? It looks
like the bare spots are in a lot of shade. Most grass will not grow well or at all without quite a bit
of sunlight. Since you are about to be too busy to baby a new lawn (pun intended) this summer, I would
just keep it mowed and make that a project for next year. The shady spots along the fence would be a
good spot for a shade garden. You can trim low-hanging branches so they don't bump people and allow
more sun to reach the grass.

That vine on the fence is scary, too big and vigorous for a small yard and will probably eventually
destroy the fence by harboring too much moisture. Woody vines grow big trunks like small trees and if
it does that between the boards they will be damaged. Is it your fence? Your vine? May be hard to
tell which side it was originally planted on. It looks like mostly honeysuckle but there's something
different to the right, I think. Don't act hastily without considering "ownership" of the vine(s.)
Check out Ken's instructions on this discussion if you would like
it to go away and don't think this will cause a ruckus with the neighbors. Smothering with
cardboard, as described above, is not a strong enough method to control the spread of some things,
including a vine like this.