You did not give the topography of your yard. Go out and study the highs and lows in the yards and determine where the water is suppose to drain. Then lower or lift the sod to make the water go where it is suppose to.

These drainage swales can be create by change the soil level by as little as an inch or two. It also helps to have product to work with, so disregard what your mother said and go out and play in the rain with a shovel. You don't have to create the swale in the rain, only establish a trench the moves the water where you want it to go. You can go back later, and using the trench as a guide make it look pretty and such that the lawn mower can mow the area.

Hi @krnuttle - Thank you for the response. I can't believe I forgot to mention this. My yard is flat in all directions. No hills, no valley. Just flat.

I want to be clear that there's no standing water in my lawn. Just that the lawn stays 'soggy' for a week or more after rain, which is unusual in my experience.

@krnuttle - Thank you for the input. Is there any chance it could be the soil preventing proper drainage? My old house had a flat front yard and drained pretty well.

If there is some type of dam playing a role ... it's not noticeable. Neighbors yards are also flat, but don't seem to have the 'soggy' lawn issues that I do.

Sub soil structures can affect the area. Our front yard,(and probably the area of the house before it was built) has veins of porous material that comes down the hill above us. as the water comes down the hill it goes under ground into these veins and creates mini artesian wells.. At various places in our yard these veins come to the surfaces making these min wells make areas soggy.

I discover this when we had a tree planted in our front yard. The hole for the ball was about 3' deep, and after the tree was planted they created a basin around the tree to keep the tree wet while it was getting established. I would fill the basin around the tree, and with out getting water on the surrounding area, the water would start coming out of the ground some distance down the hill from the tree.

It sounds like you only option if you can not determine the drainage and emphasis, it is to spend the money for it to be corrected professionally.

Have you considered crowning the yard to create a slope to the street? If you have room below the sill of the house, start raising it there and work your way toward the street. So you might raise it up 2 inches at the house and taper it out toward the street.

Is it possible you have a sprinkler leak? Turn off all the water inside and out and check your water meter to see if water is still flowing.