My apologies for the novel. I'm trying to be as thourough and transparent as possible.

I thought I knew what I was doing. I was following(ish) the plan that I did last year on my lawn that made it super lush and green but it was very short lived due to what I thought was the heat, but after reading through my notes, I realized that I just didn't fertilize properly. (I put wayyyyyyy too much nitrogen I think. Like 3lbs per 1k sqft) I figured, the more nitrogen, the greener my lawn. 🤦🏽‍♂️

For reference: My backyard is 30x20 (600 sqft) and my front lawn is 10x15 (150 sqft). I live in WA (Zone 8B).

This year I have: - [ End of March ] Dethatched my lawn to get rid of dead grass and break up the soil - [ End of March ] I immediately smothered it in Scott's THICK'R LAWN 3in1 (costco special) but didn't water it immediately. This did practically nothing and a lot of the seed was devoured by birds. - [ Mid April ] About 2.5 weeks later, I hit the entire lawn with Scotts EZ Seed Patch & Repair (oof $$$) because I used this stuff last year and it worked great.
- I immediately set up my sprinklers and started drowning my lawn once a day because someone once told me that I needed to water water water in the spring. - As of a few days ago (4/25), the EZ Seed Patch & Repair was starting to come in but seemed very thin. A portion of my front yard that was still pretty bare that I put extra patch & repair on kept getting trampled by my kids as it's the corner of the lawn next to the walk way, despite it being marked off and told them to stay off that area.
- That same day my neighbor came over and made a few comments about how my grass was a little yellow this year and that he understood because I have kids and that keeping my lawn pretty was a lot of work. Fuck this guy. - I immediately ran to the store and bought Scotts Turf Builder Rapid Grass (Sun & Shade mix) and a bag of Scotts starter food for new grass out of spite and idiocy due to my neighbors comment.
- [ Yesterday, 4/28 ] I busted out the lawn mower and mowed my grass to its lowest setting (Just under 1", first time mowing this year) - I then put the entire contents of both bags into my spreader and hit the lawn with that combo focusing on bare areas and being more generous with the seeding.
- Then proceeded to waterboard my lawn.

Additional information: - No, I did not aerate because I was lazy - I did not put a pre-emergent down - I did nothing in the fall to prepare for the winter

And then I found /u/wino_tim's post this morning (https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/comments/fb1gjj/a_beginners_guide_to_improving_your_lawn_this/) and I realized just how absolutely wrong I have been on everything.

I may have shed a tear this morning realizing that I am an idiot. A big, big, idiot.

So, my question at this point is: I know that I need to fertilize my lawn and get some nitrogen into the ground (the proper amount based off square footage). I want an incredibly luscious and thick lawn for my kids to play in because last year the grass was quite soggy and soft. I also want to have a healthy lawn going into the summer months so that come fall, I can be more prepared and do things properly going into the winter.

Plus, I really want to be the neighbor that everyone hates because of my beautiful grass/lawn.

Is there anything I can / should do next to try and make up for what I have already done, or did I fuck it all up?

Thank you everyone!