This morning, our Plumber From Down Under came by and helped us get our old ghetto water valves fixed up and also install a pressure vacuum breaker assembly for me to start tackling the sprinklers. I have 19,000 square feet of yard to figure out sprinklers for. I think there will be a lot of trenching and PVC assembly in my future for sure.
The pressure vacuum breaker assembly in the final photos below brings us to code and is where I am going to tie into for the water to the sprinklers. He also set it up so that we can turn off the main to our house without turning off the sprinklers and vice versa. Pretty neato!