No tilling - ever, NEVER. Tilling is the fast track to a bumpy surface like you have. If you have an intolerably bumpy surface, start with the existing surface and either grind off the peaks and fill the valleys or just fill the valleys up to the peaks. The easiest material to use is sand because it does not become clods in the middle of the project. Clods are the bane of leveling. You cannot make the surface any leveler than the highest clods. With sand it moves easy to fill and never requires additional sand just to get up to the highest clod. If you are unwilling to water once per week, then there is not much you can do to improve. You could add more clover seed and let Nature take her course. Clover is the type of plant that will survive in poor soil. Your soil is poor because you have neglected to water it regularly. The microbes that normally live in the soil require water and food if you want a healthy soil. Water is water but the food they need comes best in the form of ground up grains like ordinary corn meal, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, alfalfa pellets or meal, cottonseed meal, or a commercial fertilizer called Milorganite. The products provide food in the form of protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes to the microbes. The well fed microbes, in turn, provide plant food to the grass. Sounds odd but this was Mother Nature's design over the past 4 billion years. We just discovered it in the 1990s. We always knew there were a few "germs" in the soil, but we really did not know there were tens of thousands of beneficial microbes in the soil. The advent of dirt cheap DNA testing allowed scientists literally to test dirt for signs of life. The first thing they need is water if you want to improve your yard. The best way to water is deeply like when it rains all day. So water all at once when you water. Spreading out your water over the entire week is what encourages the growth of weeds. Sometimes you can't help when it rains but other times you can restrain yourself from frequent watering. Figure 1 inch, once per week during the hottest heat of summer. In your area you may never get temps above 90 and can go 2 weeks between deep watering. You'll have to judge. So avoid daily watering and move toward deep watering with days in between. You are mowing right...maybe. Mulch mowing is good. You may; however, be mowing too low. For northern grasses start at the highest setting and see if you want to come down a notch or two. But let all the grass get all the way up so the mower is mowing it and then decide. Tall grass develops much deeper roots which require less and less water with the height. Short grass needs a LOT of water. Just to prove that point I have an entire lawn which has not been mowed since Oct 2011. Parts of the lawn are 32 inches tall. Those parts have not been watered since Oct 2011 and look excellent. Now it has rained but I live on the edge of the Texas desert, so we don't get rain very often or very deep. Point is keep your grass as high as you can stand it. It takes less water and keeps more weeds out. If you decide to use a herbicide, use a liquid that you can spot spray individual weeds. A hose end type sprayer will work fine if you have a way to turn it of at the sprayer. Your lawn was likely a mix of fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. Fescue grass grows in clumps so if you want a dense turf, you need lots of seed. KBG spreads and fills in like a carpet so it does not need as much seed. Fescue tolerates some shade. KBG does not tolerate shade. Fescue seed sprouts in 2 weeks. KBG sprouts in 3 weeks. If you decide to seed with a mix of fescue and KBG, be sure to keep up the daily watering for at least 3 weeks to be sure you have some KBG germination. If you decide to reseed, wait until the end of summer to do that. August might be a good time depending on when the heat breaks. You can either wipe out the entire yard with RoundUp or just scalp it down and seed. Watering for new seed requires 3x per day for a very short time. All you need to do is keep the seed moist so it will sprout. If you miss doing it this fall, then wait until next fall. Spring seeding guarantees you a yard full of crabgrass. If you get it right in the fall, then it should be fairly filled in by winter and will come back nice in the spring. If you want to fertilize now, organic fertilizer is what I suggest. It will not burn. Just go to the feed store and find a 50-pound bag of anything I mentioned in the earlier paragraph. I like alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) for the low low cost of $12.50 per bag. Apply at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. All of them go down at that rate. If you over apply, no worries. You can double that rate and double it again with no worries. These organic feeds work surprisingly well when you are watering properly.

Normally a choke not fully closing or fuel/ carb issues will cause an extended crank cold condition.

Not much you can do to prevent a leak in the indoor coil except reduce the amount of corrosives in the home. A lot of fumes from cleaners such as chlorox and ammonia may lead to premature corrosion on coils. I noticed years ago that the use of hair sprays and such during the winter would seem to accelerate rusting of the heat exchangers in some homes with standing pilot furnaces. Using chlorox in some drains is a no-no and will cause rapid rusting/corrosion. Vinegar is milder and less damaging in my opinion. Never add any acidic chemical directly into the pan of the coil. There's quite a list of things checked during a "tuneup", which is an unusual name for it. A lot of the checking is visual- looking for signs of corroded connections, burnt or wires getting overheated, mold in the plenum or duct (system not cooling properly), insulation on the refrigerant lines and drains, rusted pans, leaky ducts, vent pipes clear and installed correctly, drain is clean and clear, blowers and coils (and it's pan) clean, the outdoor coil (condensor) clean, motors oiled, freon psi normal per the proper charging method for that system, air split within range, thermostat accurate, return sealed, electrical breakers and wires the proper size and aren't running too warm, no buildup of leaves in the outdoor unit, no distributor tubes touching which can rub together and cause a future leak or wires rubbing and getting ready to wear thru and cause a short. A quick inspection of the ducting, mainly at the plenum is a good idea. If molds are present at the plenum, it is usually a sign that the system is not operating properly (low on freon, low air split ect.) and throwing off moisture instead of removing it. If this persists, mold will develope throughout the ducting and all the way to the registers. The house will feel damp or warm even at comfort temperatures of 75-77 degrees. A check of the humidity and wet bulb temps if the system has been operating normally helps evaluate possible problems. There's actually more and this seems like a whole day project, but actually an experienced tech does these visual inspections in a short time. Once any corrections are made (if any) the same tech should be the one to come back every year, as he knows your system. I wash every outdoor coil, regardless if it looks clean or not, because I have been suprised before from the ones that look clean but are not. Of course all of the controls should be checked, and any visual signs of oil on the freon lines or fittings checked to see if there is a leak and repaired. The proccesses for checking heat pumps, cooling only and gas furnaces are a little different, but at the same time similar. If you have a gas furnace, I always give it a quick look for anything that is unsafe with it or anything applicable to it's proper and safe operation and advise the customer of any corrections needed or to have it looked at before winter use. Some people think they don't get their monies worth when the tech isn't there for a long time, but a well installed and maintained system doesn't take as long to check over as compared to a system that has been neglected or installed poorly. Prices are quite different in all areas and range from $50.00 to as much as $170.00. It's best to stay away (in my experience) from the $19.95 specials- no company can survive with that price and must sell something to make up the difference. Phew! I feel like I just wrote a book! :)

You can get pretty far in cleaning with a light solution of plain dish soap and miracle cloth + blue, non-scratch pad + old toothbrush. If you need more power, you can use a very mild solution of phosphates, rinse well and dry. The color thing depends - Eandhl said one way. I'd try the light bulbs too. Sometimes, the color of the lighting changes the color of things and mixing in some warmer or cooler colored bulbs can help. The other thing that can impact the appearance of color is the other colors in the room - so you might be able to paint the walls and affect the appearance of the cabinets. The decorating forum is good for those sorts of questions.