Sourdough, or Sour Grapes?

My husband and I love sourdough bread.  I lived in San Francisco for a few years, so to me there is nothing better than a fresh loaf of San Francisco sourdough.  It's the gold standard to which few other sourdoughs compare.  I've never tried to make sourdough, although I'm a pretty good bread maker.  I use my KitchenAid stand mixer for the kneading, and a heating pad to help the dough rise in the wintertime.  But now, my husband has been begging me to try my hand at homemade sourdough.

At first, I told him it just couldn't be done here.  We keep the house too cool in the wintertime to even attempt it, I said.  My mom had some starter on hand sometimes when I was growing up, but she had to keep it in the small closet with the hot water heater to nurse it through the cold spells.  Our hot water heater is in the garage - the coldest part of the house in the winter.  I just could not foresee any way of keeping the starter happy, if it even started at all.

What I didn't tell Nick was that I would look into it.  I didn't want to get his hopes up.  Or mine.  After doing some research, it actually didn't look like it would be as hard as I thought it was.  So, one day last week, I made my first batch of starter.  The recipe called for unsweetened pineapple juice and flour to be mixed together, then stirred several times a day for 48 hours.  After that, more juice and flour were to be added, then stirred 2-3 times a day for another 48 hours.  After which, I should have a viable starter that I would then feed with flour and water.  The recipe got great reviews, and it looked like it was working for just about everyone.  There were even comments from people who had tried it in a cold kitchen.  They said that it just took longer to get going.

So now, I'm not sure what to do.  It's been six days now.  While it is just now starting to smell like sourdough (encouraging, I think), it certainly doesn't look like a good starter.  I'm willing to give it more time, but I'm not sure what to do with it.  Should I give it more juice, or go ahead and add water?  How much should I use - the "starting" amount from the first two feedings, or the larger amounts intended to help it grow in volume so it can be used?  I've never done this before, so I guess its just going to have to be trial-and-error.  

I'm beginning to think that I would have been better off telling Nick "no", and leaving it at that...