By renovation are you nuking the lawn and reseeding? What do you have now? 2k sq ft is small, so that seems pricey to me. If you are using TTTF, you might try leveling yourself and spending $20 on glyphosate and another $75 for premium seed and calling it a day.

@mishmosh yes we already applied weed/grass killer.

Then the job's half-done. Wait a week or so, mow the lawn v-e-r-y short, bag the remains, and spread the seed.

This time, I'd be inclined to use a starter fertilizer with mesotrione (a weed suppressant) since you have and have had a weed problem. It'll help during seed down.

I'm not generally a fan of feeding at seeding time, but I'll make an exception here.

Water three times per day (yes, 3 times!) for about 10 minutes a shot. Keep that seed damp (not waterlogged, so if it is, cut back the time, not the number of waterings).

You'll see sprout in about 5 days. Depending on the seed, it can take up to 30 days for it all to sprout (bluegrasses being the slowest). Keep up the watering 3 times daily until then.

Then back off to once a day, but 20 minutes at a time for about 2 weeks. Then once every third day (that being October) if it doesn't rain and the soil isn't staying damp in the colder weather.

Then weekly in mid-October if same.

Bingo, new lawn.

Feed gently with an organic feeding in late September, walking the new lawn carefully. I'd suggest Milorganite at bag rate.

Around November first, feed with a synthetic fertilizer (it's too cold for organics and the lawn is mature enough at this point) at bag rate for the last time in the season to get it ready for winter. This will stand in for your winterizer as the new lawn won't want to stay awake very late this year. It's young, but this will keep it healthy regardless.

@morpheuspa thanks so much! Is synthetic fertilizer is the starter fertilizer like Scotts?

In the case of the mesotrione, it'll be Starter Fertilizer with Mesotrione. It'll provide weed protection for about 30 days while the new grass sprouts. It's not perfect, but it really does help.

You can probably use that again around October 1 if you want instead of (or even in addition to) the Milorganite for a little extra weed coverage. However, it's going to turn some of/a lot of the new grass rather white. Check the bag to make sure the grasses you chose can tolerate the second application; many can. Some dislike it but bear up. Some can't.

My bluegrasses turn rather strange colors but return to normal after 8 to 10 weeks.

In the case of the November application, go with a high-nitrogen fertilizer, something with a high first number and low second and third numbers. Starter fertilizer would be more likely to run off and become water pollution than feed the new lawn when applied very late in the season as our ground starts to frost and freeze a bit. Phosphorus doesn't penetrate quickly.

So you'd be looking for something like 38-2-4 (not exact numbers, just an example where the first number is much larger than the other two).

This year, my November application is 46-0-0. If I run short (and I might), I still have some backup 35-0-4 left over to cover the gap. It's all good as that first number is very large compared to that 4 at the end.