To loosen up your soil, so get a straw bale, hopefully a cleaned or brushed one with few weed seeds, spread the straw on your yard and then you might want to put in red clover until you decide which way you want to go with your landscaping. Granted red clover is not going to look geat all year long, but the only things that do are invasive and/or ugly

I would just scrape all the weeds off before they can set set and then put a thick mulch of composted, shredded wood. That will keep weeds down until you can get to it, and as the mulch decomposes it will feed the soil. Also one thing you can do is sprinkle on free used coffee grounds from a local coffee place--just keep sprinkling them on as you get them. Earthworms ADORE coffee grounds and they will loosen up the soil for you.