Blocking the EXE with your firewall is going to result in an empty house because the game connects to the whatever service it is every time the game starts. Preventing that basically stops the game from loading properly, which is why you get an empty house.
If you're repeatedly seeing this error message, then there is something preventing the game from connecting to the internet properly. First piece of advice is to make sure the game has full exceptions within your firewall/virus scanner/whatever else might prevent it from connecting properly, or suspending those services when you boot up the game.
I've also quoted TanatOS' post with the most recent update (located on page 55, in case the files don't get transferred with quoted messages). Attached to this post is a .zip file with the story files in them, called 'Mods.0.8.1.' If you give House Party full exceptions and you still can't get it to run properly, take all of the files out of the 'Stories' folder in the .zip and copy the files over to your Eek mod directory (Windows: Documents/Eek/House Party/Mods/Stories). This might help get things running for you.
EDIT: Screw it. I've attached the .zip to this post. Might as well, I guess.
If none of that works... well, I'll keep looking.