So my story's basically going down the tubes?

Ah, the clic Romeo and Juliet scenario. Here's an interesting idea for the family feud: perhaps the two groups of people are vastly different in their core characteristics. By that, I mean one family could be a more church-oriented family, with a father who is a preacher, and the other family could be more of a blue-collar working cl type. You could expand on this idea of the two families being vastly different, actually. You could have alot of fun with it- the possibilities are immense. Say that one family is really liberal in their ideals and the other is conservative. Or perhaps it's a matter of cles- wealthy and poor. I'm sure you could come up with a variety of ideas, but the important part is the purpose of why they hate eachother, seeing as it's a major plot element. Go with your gut instinct and count on the characters to develop along with the ideas.