Lets take a break from all the Excel trickery. Today I want to share a joyous news with you all.
Today I want to take you back in time, all the way to 1987. I want to share a story with you. So, sit back, sip some coffee and enjoy.
Year 1987 and aftermath
My dad is working as a sales manager back then. He is a quintessential salesman. Busy, flamboyant, confident, tall & fun. I remember him very vaguely now. But I remember having lots of good time at family dinners (we are a family of 5 – my younger brother, mom, dad, dad’s mom & myself). I remember riding his scooter on trips to my school, family clinic or just around the corner.
Then, as if someone shook us from a dream and took everything away, my dad suddenly passed away in the summer of that year. He had a fatal liver failure.
It was a big shock for all of us, especially my mom, who had been married to him for 7 years. My mother studied only up to Class 12. She did not have any job skills back then. On top, she is burdened with 2 little kids (my brother is 5 and I was 6 at that time). We did not have money, house or any other type of assets.
So we moved to my mother’s mother house. My grand parents were kind enough to support us in those dark years.
With in a few years we started getting regular pension, thanks to my dad’s life insurance. This gave a sense of financial security and freedom to us. But, we still felt one gnawing pain. We did not have a home to live.
Between 1990 and 2006, we stayed in 8 different houses. This constant shifting & lack of security bothered my brother and me very much.We decided that, we would get a house as soon as we can.
In fact, I even said to myself that I would not get married before owning a house.
Fast forward to 2000s
So I wanted to own a house, before building a family. But then, I met Jo, we dated for a few years, realized that we are perfect for each other. We could not imagine living without each other. So we got married in year 2007. There was still no house.
Meanwhile, housing prices kept on raising and made my dream almost impossible to achieve without a back breaking mortgage loan. So I kept saying myself, “let me work hard for a few years, save money and then, we will get a house.”
In year 2009, we became parents to a set of lovely, naughty and adorable twins. Nakshatra (girl) & Nishanth (boy) transformed our lives in ways we could not imagine. While the joys of parenting are overwhelming, I was worried all the time about the house. “What if something bad happens and we end up without a home.”
Still we kept saving and living frugally.
Enter 2011 – In search of a house
Since we are against loans (see note 1), we waited until we have enough funds to purchase the house we want. Finally, by March 2011, we reached that stage. So we started looking for a suitable house.
We went to property fairs, told everyone in our immediate social circles, approached agents, pored thru classifieds and online ads. Very soon, we are very tired and felt hopeless.
Good houses almost always have exorbitant prices
Bad or poor houses are over priced too.
We almost gave up and decided to live in a rented house for few more years. But then, a neighbor told us about a house that is up for sale, in the locality where we live. I went and checked it out on the same day. I liked it. It seemed like a house we could call home.
Few days later, we visited the house again. This time with Jo & kids. We liked the space and calm neighborhood. We discussed with a few relatives & friends and made an offer to the owners. After some negotiations, we purchased the house on 26th July, this year.
Then we started renovating the house. It took 2 and half months to get everything done. We have remodeled the kitchen, done wood-work (cupboards), changed flooring, added a car park, store room, upgraded some of the electrical & plumbing fixtures.
Finally, we moved in to the house last Saturday (15th October) and loving it ever since.
Details & Photos of our home
- Total land area: 350 Sq. Yards (292 sq. mts)
- House carpet area: 1000 Sft (92 sq. mts)
- Rooms: 2 bedrooms, living, kitchen, storage, 2 bath & toilets
- Purchase price: ~ $100k
- Location: Vizag
These photos were taken on October 3rd, when we had the traditional Gruha Pravesham (it is like house warming celebration). So you so almost no furniture. The photo of my office room is taken today (October 20th).
Our Living Room
This is our Kitchen
My Office Room (doubles up as guest bedroom too)
Our Living room from Kitchen
Entering our House (Gruha Pravesham) with a Ribbon Cut
Jo and I in our Kitchen
For more pics, checkout New Home Set on my Flickr page.
Thank you & Thanks to Excel
As we live, breathe, enjoy and sleep in this home, I could not thank enough for your support in making this happen. I am so glad you identify with the mission of Chandoo.org and spread a good word about it. I am so humbled that you support us by joining our training programs, purchasing our e-books & products. I am so thankful to you for spending time with us everyday, learning & sharing new things.
Thank you.
I am also thankful to MS Excel, the powerful, awesome tool that transformed my life. It gave me the courage to quit a comfortable job and embark on an exciting journey of running a small business. Thank you so much Microsoft & Excel for being awesome.
One last thing
There is a reason why I am writing this today instead of last Saturday, when we moved in to the new home. Today (Oct 20) is also my birthday. As I celebrate my 29th birthday, I feel immensely grateful, content and happy for the journey so far. The fact that I can share my life, knowledge and mistakes with you all makes me very lucky. I hope the coming years are just as wonderful for you and me.
PS: because of the house renovation work during last 8 weeks, I could not reply to as many emails as I want to. So if you are one of those who mailed me and never heard back, please resend and I will get back to you at the earliest.
More Personal Stories
If you would like to learn more about the personal side of Chandoo.org, have a read thru these,
- Story of Chandoo.org Start-up
- Thank you Excel, We have a car
- How Excel Transformed my life (story of 1 year of running Chandoo.org)
- Christmas & New Year Wishes – 2011
- Meet Nakshatra & Nishanth – our kids
- I am Dad!!!
Added later:
Note 1: As some of you pointed, I did have a mortgage loan (which has 2 more months on it). I borrowed this year 2007 for an apartment (condo) I purchased for my brother. Even though that house is not for me, I still pay the loan as I love my brother and want to support him.
Note2: Our new home is in Vizag, the same place where we have been living for last 2 years.
13 Responses to “Gantt Box Chart Tutorial & Template – Download and Try today”
Hi Chandoo
As one of your students I have followed your detailed example through with great success. However, Excel is acting in an unexpected way and I wonder if you could take a look?
http://cid-95d070c79aef808e.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Gantt%20Box%20Chart.xlsm
On my version, I have to type 40239 (Which equates to 2 Mar 2010) to get the chart to display 31 May 2010 (which should be 40329)!!??
Have I done something wrong or is Excel acting up?
Thx
Oli
PS Your example file in 2007 displays correctly.
Hi,
I like this idea a lot, but I agree the name is a little drab.
As an American I may just be seeing things, but to me the combination of lines and bars on your chart looks like a bunch of cricket bats.
Maybe you could work that into a catchier name. 🙂
Cheers!
Here is some code I use to keep the axis synched.
It may be useful to some of your readers
It is based on a comment I saw on Daily Dose of Excel.
Function SynchGanttAxis(Cname, lower, upper)
'Sets the X min and X max for Category axis
Application.Volatile
On Error Resume Next
'
'Top Horizontal Axis
With ActiveSheet.Shapes(Cname).Chart.Axes(xlCategory, 1)
.MinimumScale = lower
.MaximumScale = upper
End With
'Bottom Horizontal Axis
With ActiveSheet.Shapes(Cname).Chart.Axes(xlValue, 2)
.MinimumScale = lower
.MaximumScale = upper
End With
End Function
Function SynchVerticalAxis(Cname, lower, upper)
Application.Volatile
On Error Resume Next
' Excel 2007 only
'Right hand vertical axis
With ActiveSheet.Shapes(Cname).Chart.Axes(xlValue, 1)
.MinimumScale = 0
.MaximumScale = upper
End With
End Function
@Oli.. Can you check your file again.. I see 40329...
@Dave: Even I saw things.. the bars actually looked like lollipops. How about calling this lollipop chart - now that would be yummy and goes along the tradition of naming charts after eatables (bar, pie, donut...)
@Bob: Superb stuff... thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Chandoo
This looks really good and I think it can also be applied to show project phases / milestones.
Question: Thinking further could this be amended to display a project lifecycle (Idea through to Implementation say 7 phases) on one bar / row? Just imagine 20 projects within a programme all on one chart one bar each showing their respective lifecycle stages i.e. on one page.
Idea: As the Gantt Box Chart this is quite intensive to set up re formatting etc how about the added extra of once you have completed this to "Save as template" i.e. saves the formatting and layout of the chart as a template so you can apply to future charts. Simple to do and will save the time formatting etc again and again and again.
Therefore tip: Click on your chart demo and then click on Save As template icon (2007) - edit file name and click on save. Ready to use / apply via Templates in Change Chart Type window.
Thanks and be very interested if the lifecycle question can be resolved
Mike
How embarrassing.
I was obviously suffering from numerical dyslexia. I was one of those days.
@Mike H: You can easily make this chart to work like a generic project lifecycle plan chart. All you have to do is,
1. in a separate sheet define the steps of lifecycle and various dates in a table (with 5 columns for each of the projects you have).
2. now use a control cell to input the project name you want to show in the chart
3. based on the input, use OFFSET Formulas to get the correct data
4. Rest is same as the tutorial above
For more info on the dynamic charting visit http://chandoo.org/wp/tag/dynamic-charts/ and http://chandoo.org/wp?s=OFFSET
Your solution is really smart but in the en Excel isn't meant to do stuff like this. I, as a former PM, always thought is was frustrating that you had to do stuff like this for something simple like a Gantt chart. So I built Tom's Planner. And would like to plug it here. I think it really solves the problem you are trying to solve in the most efficient way. Check out http://www.tomsplanner.com for a free account or play around with the demo.
Hi there,
Chandoo - this is really a very nice and helpfull chart - I adopted it, so I can report a forecast or the delay of a certain task (coming from my role as an auditor for projects).
One topic I´m currently struggeling with: I do have a project lasting for lets say 12 month. For a management reporting, I want to have kind of snapshot, lets say one month back and 2 month in the future. I tried with the offset formula, but failed. Any idea?
Thx
Lopi
[...] Ein viel geliebter Klassiker ist die Erstellung von GANTT-Diagrammen mit Excel. Wir hatten das Thema wiederholt schon hier. Chandoo.org hat sich mal wieder mit einer neuen Variante hervorgetan: Das GANTT-Box-Chart. [...]
[...] [...]
Hi Chandoo - fantastic xls. One thing I can't figure out how to do is adjust the alignment of the vertical axis. I would like to left align so that I could indent to represent sub tasks. Can that be done? Or is there a better way?
I've been trying to work out if there's a way to show weekends on the graph. The closest thing I've got is to add them on a secondary axis, but then I haven't been able to keep both axis lined up together! Any ideas?
Following on from this - is it possible to show things like holidays?