I'm in zone 7A; western NC (USA), about an hour west of Greensboro. I'm technically in the foothills, so not quite mountainous but I can see them.

I'm more or less scraping up my entire back yard and starting over, so I'd like some suggestions on what type of grass to sow :-)

Lay of the land:

I have plenty of field pine to the East, West, and North. The well water has a 5.0pH, so I'm making an educated guess that the soil is acidic, too. It's mostly red (although not so much clay-like in this area), so it should be high in iron.

The back yard is fenced in, so there's very little wildlife other than squirrels, snakes, and birds. I do have issues with black ants, fire ants, and grub worms (which have brought moles and voles), which I hope to eliminate. I also have plenty of earth worms :-)

I also have sprinklers set up to run 20 minutes every other day, so water shouldn't be an issue.

The Southern section of the lawn is shaded by the house, so very little sun there. The middle of the lawn is full sun, and the Northern section is shaded by field pine trees so it's more of a dappled-sun area.

I'm pretty sure that perennial rye grass has done well, but for the most part it's been choked out by crabgrass. Crabgrass does VERY well here! LOL

I don't have kids, but I do have dogs and this is their playground and potty. So I need grass that handles some traffic and pee stains.

It would also be nice if it stays nice and green year-round, and I don't have to mow it every week :-O

My back yard has my main flower gardens, goldfish pond, and large deck with grill and hot tub, so it's really where friends spend most of their time. So I want it to look really nice!

I bought a bunch of Kentucky 31 grass seed last year, but it doesn't look like any of it survived once the crabgrass took over. And in looking at pics, maybe it wasn't the most attractive choice, anyway? I want to have a nice, soft, comfy, inviting lawn, not something that looks like a cow pasture :-/