The best way to choke out weeds is to let grass do a lot of the work for you. Put out sprigs of sod or sow seed. Just keep it watered and fed with fertilizer of your choice. Some weeding may be necessary if you have certain types of weeds.

It's almost all WEEDS. Hubby doesn't care because they're green. LOL

When you say weeds, what exactly is growing there? Can you post a close up? The lawn actually looks a lot better than many of the lawns we see on see pages.

Chances are that many or most of the weeds are broadleaved weeds. The easiest way to separate them out of the lawn and eliminate them is to spray the whole lawn with a broadleaved weed killer. Weed-b-gone is one example. Follow mfg. directions carefully. If there are grassy weeds, you'll need to dig those out manually.

Not sure where you're talking about placing stepping stones or what their purpose will serve. The yard already looks zen ... and kind of industrial as there are no landscape beds ... not even foundation planting or a single tree. I guess we don't like plants ...? ... which is the main reason the yard is "boring."