[Nathans_Dad]

I redid my front yard last year. Here's my advice:

1). Hire a landscape designer. A plan shouldn't cost you more than $250 or so and it will detail all the plants and such you need to buy.
2). Hire out the heavy labor. Around here we have a plentiful supply of Hispano-Americans who are willing to work hard and work cheap. Doing things like removing sod, cutting in beds, tilling and such is NO FUN and well worth the $400 you will spend to have someone else do it.
3). Buy and plant the plants yourself. Landscape designers will mark up plant material at least 50% if not 100%. Much cheaper to buy the stuff yourself. For trees and such the nursery will often plant them for you for a modest fee.

Doing all this I was able to redo my front yard (without sod, I did that just a week ago) for about $4,000. The estimate to have it done by a landscaper with the same plan was $13000.

For sod I 100% suggest having it done. If you have a small yard, the cost should be negligible. I had my yard completely sodded in Tifway 419 this week for $1300. That included spraying Roundup on the old stuff, tilling it all up a week later, removing the old grass, leveling the yard and laying the sod. It sounds like your yard is very small so you should be able to get it done for less than $1000.