Congrats to him on owning his own home at such a young age! The house is so cute. With very little money I would do nothing there are always surprises in a new home in terms of repairs and maintenance as well as all the things you need to buy as a homeowner ( eg lawnmower, rakes, shovels tools etc etc ).

Maybe paint the shutters and door a contrasting color(s). Replace the light fixtures if they're in rough shape. Power wash the stairs and pathway. Other than that, I'd spruce up the landscaping. Cute house!

Get new house numbers and add a mailbox. Look on etsy for something unique and his style. Paint front door and shutters. If he is willing to do himself VERY little cost. Unless he needs a storm door get rid of it. It will help the look of the door after you paint it. Trim the bushes when the season is right. I would also change out the black railing for something more substantial. You can do this yourself from prefab wood at home depot or Loews and paint it white to match trim.

The outside looks great right now, and I'd save the $$ for any incidental expenses that will crop up. However, if he is set on changing the outside cheaply, your ideas are the way to go.

Super cute house with nice foundation plants that just need trimming. Agree to change lights and remove storm door if possible. I'm stumped on a door color with that pink, though. Someone smarter than me will have some good ideas. Painting (or eliminating) the shutters and painting the front door will make a nice change.

How are you planning to trim the shrubs? Please don't shear the smaller ones into balls. They look fine to me as they are. They look like someone previously sheared them into balls and they are just growing out. Let them do so. If anything, trim them a bit, branch by branch, not sheared, so they are narrower and rounded on the top and wider on the bottom.

I would remove the shutters and get a new front door that does not require a storm door and then install a phantom screen .New landscaping would be the first thing to tackle what is there is too much for a small house. Maybe even think about a porch across the front

Congrats I agree with the comments on painting the shutters, door and trimming the bushes changing door hardware and light fixtures, the only thing I would add is a strip of concealed LED

lights that will give the house a soft glow at night, you can do the lights on top or on the floor,

these changes will do wanders on the look and if he can do the labor even better

Love the house! Love the original wooden storm/screen door, too!!!!! I suspect he has the insert of the screen for the door tucked in the garage? I hope so! Your ideas are great. I could see a blue front door on this adorable house.

If it were mine, my spring projects here would be:

removal of shutters, clumpy shrubs and walk

begin installation of typical cottage garden (to continue over several years)

If not into DIY, then pressure wash the landing and walk, paint handrails white, upgrade lights, numbers and paint the shutters, door (and storm) an inviting color like teal or aqua.

Cottage gardens with their mix of perennials and annuals are quite a bit of work, and probably one of the most difficult to do well. Not for a novice gardener. Weeding, watering, dividing perennials, dealing with insects and diseases, putting in annuals and removing them in fall. Your son is new to property maintenance so he should ease into it slowly, if this even what he wants to do. Don't don't start by pulling out what, to my eye, are perfectly acceptable shrubs, which, if replaced with other shrubs, will take years to get to that size. The existing shrubs also have winter interest, which cottage gardens often lack.

If he wants flowers, deepen the bed by 2 feet and plant annuals in front of the existing shrubs, which will be a good background for them. I speak as an avid gardener myself who has seen many people overreach, and end up with something less attractive than if they taken it slowly.

I agree with the others who are saying do nothing at the moment. Give his bank account time to recover. The house is very cute as it is. Take things slow and follow the advice my depression era parents imparted to me and my siblings - if you don't have the money in the bank, you need to wait until you do.

I would NOT remove the shutters. There seems to be this strange aversion to shutters on this site. They are one of the things that contribute to the charm of this house. I would however replace them with a different style of shutter (making sure they are properly sized) and add hinges and shutter dogs rather that the pasted on look of the ones already there (still cute though). Add larger coach lights flanking the front door, some landscaping along the front walk, and the house will be sweet.

I agree on doing as little as possible on the outside. If you do paint the front door and shutters, I vote for a full glass storm door. A full glass storm door will allow more light in thru the top glass of the door, eliminate the fussiness of the present storm door, give some protection to the house door and I think a locked storm door is added protection when you don't know who is knocking. I live in a nice area but there are no totally safe places today. I like when a stranger comes to the door I have that locked storm door between us but we can still talk. Also when you paint the door, gold/brass numbers are pretty in the middle of the door, if the house number is not long, gold/brass numbers would look nice as well as a gold/brass kick plate. The solid glass storm door will allow these to show nicely. Not sure about colors for door and shutters, maybe dark navy blue, eggplant/very dark purple, or black. Make the storm door the same color as the house door as this will make the door appear larger. They are easy to spray paint and just remember to lightly sand the storm door as well as the house door before painting. This is a really cute house.

Take a look at the color Caponata from Benjamin Moore. It's beautiful Also Soot (BM) - a blue/black. Either might work.

Super cute - except the lights and the numbers. They interfere with the adorable cuteness of the door. houseArt sells a variety of colors for numbers, and they could be put vertically on the sidepost in either the Dark Bronze color, or maybe better yet Stainless/Silver to coordinate with the color of the house and update the look. Simple, updated and good looking. There are so many light choices out there now, but stick with simple. I think the black color actually takes away from the house, which is why I am thinking silver/stainless now for both. Stainless/Silver would still show upon the white. NOt the same colors at all, but an example:

houseArt on houzz

Oh, and paint the porch railing white - ditch all of the black!

Removing the shutters on this house would make it terribly dull and plain, imo. The current ones aren't out of proportion to the windows and look just fine. Of course, nidnay's idea of replacing them with ones that look functional is a great idea. Beyond your ideas of new lights and numbers, I see no need to rush on anything for the outside of this charming house. Congrats to your son! Exciting time. :)

A very cute house!

I would make pop up front door, new lights, new numbers.

Shutters are nice and proper size.