First post here. I have been a long time lurker on the nature and home side.

Some questions but first the facts:

I am new to lawn care other than mowing. So a complete newbie here. My wife and I bought a house shortly before I deployed to Afghanistan. When I got back we kept the same yard guy. My wife and I both noticed some patches of dirt under our trees and a whole lot of clover had moved in our back yard. (not so much the front). I ask our lawn guy about this and he said no problem. I can get some stuff to take care of that and leave the grass. He also mentioned that we needed to overseed. (i mentioned that I thought people did this in the fall) He said "doing it twice a year is best when you have a troubled lawn, once it is established densely, you can just overseed once a year" So i said go ahead.

He treated with some stuff called Trimec 922--- 3 weeks ago. The stuff took about 10-12 days to kill off the stuff but did a great job. unfortunately, we can now really see how bad our back yard is. 40 to 60 % is brown stuff. Our front yard (which is really shady btw) is still pretty good, just a few more spotches than before. He said in 3 weeks he would overseed. That brings me to 3 days ago. He aerated with one of those dirt plug machines and overseeded and fertilized. he did not dethatch or cover with lime or any light dirt like i have since read about online. He then told me to water. I asked how much and he just said "alot" so i google a watering schedule and learned a lot of stuff, and came up with a plan of action.

So since my ground was bone dry. I immediately water my yard down to 6 inches deep. (took a looong long time) I now have been watering 3 times a day 5 am, noon, and 5 pm. It takes a long long time for me to walk my lawn and hand hose water the hole thing. Several questions now:

Everywhere says keep the top inch moist. But with the seed just sitting on the top the top gets dry after a few hours out in the sun. How moist????

Is 3 days ago really to late and I just wasted money on seed that will never take??? Because its sitting ontop of the soil that I cant keep wet even though i water 3 times a day to the tune of about 4 hours total of my day?

Did this guy know what he was doing or did I get "hosed"?

I think the seeds that are down in between the grass probably stay moist because they are shaded by the grass and may stay moist??

Should I just give up after my 3 day of 3 times a day watering or is there still hope????

Help and thoughts????

Also does anyone have a good lawn care book they can recommend so I can learn the right way to care for my own lawn????

Thanks in advanced for your advice and help!! I look forward to the replies.