Hi Cate, I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble getting your starter up and running! Patience is definitely warranted, and if you're feeding only once a day with the whole wheat flour, I would continue on with this feeding routine. 

However, because your house is so warm, consider feeding with cool water and keep an eye on your starter. At you room temperature, your starter is more likely to rise and fall within a shorter period of time, and you might miss this activity if you're not watching it carefully. When starter is allowed to rise and fall, the end result looks a lot like what you're describing (no apparent rise, with a lot of small bubbles on the surface). If it is rising, you may also notice a thinner consistency and a watermark around the side of the container to indicate that the starter has risen and fallen.  

While you're waiting for your starter to rise, you might consider maintaining a smaller starter, which will save on flour. This starter is maintained with 20g each, starter, water and flour, and fits nicely in an 8-ounce canning jar. 

Once your starter begins rising predictably (twice), it's important to begin twice a day feedings, which will help to keep the yeast more active. At that point I would also suggest adjusting your feeding ratio a bit for your warmer environment. You could try 1:5:5 (starter, water, flour, by weight), which should help you line up your twice a day feedings closer to the peak rise, which helps keep the yeast more active. Allowing the starter to fall significantly between feedings can lead to sluggish yeast behavior. A 1:5:5 feeding could look like this: 12g starter + 60g water +60g flour. With a smaller starter, a 1:5:5 feeding would look like: 5g starter + 25g water +25g flour. I would also recommend gradually transitioning to all-purpose flour over the course of several feedings, so the starter has time to adjust to its new feeding source

In cooler weather you could return to the 1:1:1 feeding routine, but for this time of year I think 1:5:5 will work better for you. 

I hope this helps! Let me know how it's going! 

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