I've noticed that the only lawns in our neighborhood that look nice
are the sodded ones. The fescue lawns look similar to ours -- nearly
all weeds. We live in Georgia, btw.

Sounds like you might be out of the range of good fescue lawns. Also
sounds like you could do with some serious soil improvement with organic
matter.

Starter spots:
http://www.griffin.peachnet.edu/caes/turf/
http://www.griffin.peachnet.edu/caes...blications.htm

And my favorite book to start new gardeners on:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...l/-/0875966942