A home can teach you what you want to preserve and what you want to build differently.

Growing up somewhere is an education in both directions. You learn what warmth looks like, how a house feels when it is safe, what a good Sunday is, and you also learn what you never want to reproduce, the shouting, the silence, the particular way tension moved through rooms. Both halves of that education are useful. One tells you what to keep and the other tells you what to design against.

Write two short lists, what you want to recreate and what you want to do differently. Be specific enough that each item names a behavior rather than a feeling. The second list is only useful if you can say what you will do instead.