Short of a consolidated project (which is what you tried, I think) you cannot view consolidated information without Project Server.

I'm rather surprised to hear that the Director thinks Project is "free with Office". I don't know of any version of Microsoft Office that comes with Project for free.

Project has a fairly steep learning curve and I suggest a two to three day hands on course in order to better understand how it works. That way you can stop working against it and have Project work for you.