I have been successfully using a static front page on a theme I am building (locally so can't share URL) without any issues. Suddenly it has stopped working and I can't work out why.

The last change I made between it working and breaking was to add a `<?php else: ?>` statement into my index.php along with `&! is_front_page()` into the if statement so that I can show different content on my static home page.

index.php:

    <?php get_header(); ?>
	<div id="content">
            <?php if ( have_posts() &! is_front_page() ) : ?>
                <?php /* Start the Loop */ ?>
                <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
                    <?php get_template_part( 'posts', get_post_format() ); ?>
                <?php endwhile; ?>
            <?php else: ?>
                This is the front page!
            <?php endif; // end have_posts() check ?>
	</div>
    <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
    <?php get_footer(); ?>

I have tried reloading the permalinks page, and re-creating the Home static page and setting it up in the Reading settings page, but nothing seems to resolve the issue.

I have obviously removed the lines I added too, but that didn't resolve the issue either!

My permalink settings are set to postname and category base as `.` to remove the category part from the URL (again this was working previously). If I remove the category base, then the category works, but the URL is wrong then.

Going to the blog static page I am getting:

    is_front_page() = false
    have_posts() = false

Hope that all makes sense! Using Wordpress 3.9.1 -- I am relatively new to Wordpress and learning themes which is why its not live. Let me know if there is any other code/settings that you would need to know! I am also using custom post types with custom taxonomies using hierarchical taxonomies.