Nothing to be embarrassed about - none of us was born knowing all this stuff :-)) Many folks have no clue or even no interest in gardening until they purchase their first home.....then everything changes!!

Lawn care specifics tend to be somewhat regional in nature but some are more or less universal. Cooler climates - like your zone 6 - sponsor cool season grasses or those that will grow well in spring and fall (and even to some degree in winter) but prefer to go dormant in summer. As long as they get a small amount of water, they can tolerate being quite dry all summer, just to spring to life again with fall rains and cooler temperatures.

The other universals:
- mow high (2.5-3") and often
- water infrequently but deeply. None of that 5-10 minutes a day automatic sprinkler stuff. 1" per 7-10 days delivered all at the same time.
- avoid weed' n feed fertilizers. They are huge contributors to pollution of groundwater and streams and dangerous to pets and small kids. Use an organic fertilizer and spot or hand weed, if necessary.
- Invest in a mulching mower, aka 'grasscycling'. This type of mower minces up the clippings into tiny confetti-like pieces that you leave in place to decompose and add back nutrients to soil. A mulching mower can pretty much eliminate the need for any other fertilizer.
- practice tolerance. Lawns tends to be monocultures and so are prone to both disease and pest infiltration. And by pests, I mean primarily weeds. Hand weed the worst and tolerate the rest.

As new questions develop, you may want to ask in the lawn care forum. The advice already given is excellent, this forum is just kind of slow, and you'll have tons of grass-o-philes jumping in to help on that other forum.

That said, don't fall for the bill'o'goods that says you're a bad homeowner if something else besides one kind of grass grows in your mowed areas. Financial motivations perpetuate this notion.