I'm proud to say I solved it! Take your time and map it out!
OMG. Spreadsheets! I need spreadsheets to show the process of elimination. I won’t give away the answer.
I glanced at this an my first question is about the givens... with a fast read through I missed the “gotcha” answer if there is one... but nowhere does it say the houses are in a row. If I am mapping this... it speaks of a house “in the middle” so a circular layout is not logical... but a star arrangement may be.
I am suspicious here to mapping it out... perhaps logic, inference, and deduction is all that is needed.
I have to finish yardwork... will come back to solve this later.
Solved. Took me a while, but thankfully the effort paid off.