Seed vs. Sod

I've been occupied lately by trying to decide what to do to my front lawn: seed or sod.

My front lawn right now is nothing but a collection of weeds.  It is unsalvageable.  So I've priced out doing the job myself and contracting it out, for both seeding and sod.  

With the weather warming up, it looks like seed is not a good option until the fall.  However, do I want to wait that long to install it, and then wait for it to all fill in?  Also, seeds seems to require more water than sod.  But it would save about $400.

Sod seems easy to lay, but comes with that pricetag.  And if I mess up the watering or get inferior sod, that's quite a loss.  But it looks great and will be a better weed barrier than would planting seed.  Mainly for that reason, it looks like I will go with sod, as I am afraid of weed reemergence in a year or so if I seeded.

The prep work for either is the same: remove existing grass, add top soil and fertilizer, and grade.  Doesn't sound too tough, but I looked into sod cutting machines for rent, and they weigh nearly 400 pounds.   I weigh not even half of that.  I am concerned about my ability to handle it. And then what do I do with the rolls of weeds?  My recycling center won't take them.   

I got a couple quotes so far on sod installation, and it is $1000 for the complete job on my 930 square feet.   I was hoping to do the job myself and spend only half that, but I am afraid I will run into the troubles I described above.  I will also need to rig up a watering system, which will cost arounf $50-100.