Ninabeheim, absolutely do NOT join the houses yet. That will happen after the Month 3 houses are made, then they are sewn into pairs so the Trees can be added. Only then will the 32 houses be joined into a circle.
Here is the post I made about this January 7:
thequiltshow.com/forum/bom-2021-color-my-world/9404-do-not-sew-houses-together-yet
I know there is SO MUCH info it can be hard to find it all or keep up. The easiest thing to do is go to Recent Topics when you come to the Forum, to see what is being discussed. However, at the moment there are 5 pages of Recent Topics--I had to go to page 3 to find this one.
Another tip: use the Search box, right up there on the bar that says Index Recent Topics New Topics, etc--Search is at the right side end. Use one or two keywords to try to find posts about the question you have--it might already be something we have discussed.