What part of the world do you live in? It will make a difference based on the type of grass you have and your climate. I like to aerate and overseed in the fall to break up any thatch and rejuvenate any thin spots.

Sprinklers are a blessing and a curse. Frequent watering encourage shallow roots, which is why your lawn suffered from one week of no watering.

I’m in a similar situation, having moved to a more manicured neighborhood last year and inherited an irrigation system, my first. The sprinkler guys had it set for 10 minutes per zone every day!! I changed it to 20 min every other day, but will be changing it to a longer time twice per week. After that I will go to once a week for even longer.

My lawn has never looked worse since I started using professionals to care for it.

Assuming you live north of San Francisco in the real wine country, I'm going to ask how far you are away from the bay or beach? Do you get fog in the mornings? What altitude? What I'm assuming is that you have a fescue lawn. What I'm hoping is that you are high enough or close enough to the water to make growing fescue somewhat easy without having to water it every day.

What kind of grass do you have?

What is your watering schedule? How often and for how long do you water?

How high/low does your guy mow?

Lawn care is not hard to do once the mystery is gone. Water, mow, and fertilize. But if you water wrong (too frequently), it can go sideways quickly. Mowing too short is a problem with almost all lawns. And using weed-n-feed is a problem most of the time. The problem with wnf products is the timing. Herbicide should be used in mid April while fertilizer should be used in late May. You can't get that right with one product. There is slightly more to it than that, but it is not rocket scientology. Most home owners can do it.