[colleenj]

A little generator advice, having lived in 2 houses in the past where we had them (we lived out "in the boonies" and could easy be out of electricity for days).
First- make sure you have a professional do the wiring- they will not only make sure it is done right but we had a switch installed in our basement that we could use to switch over to generator power if we lost electricity. It was not only more convenient but it also assured that our circuitry was not damaged if the power came back on while we were on generator.
Make sure you get a big enough generator- We had one that would power our entire downstairs (including the kitchen), along with our furnace and water pump. It was more expensive but well worth the expense as we had several times we lost electricity for days and would have lost food, had frozen pipes, etc.
Make sure the generator is at least 10 feet away from the house, is not near windows and the exhaust is pointed away from the house. We have had several tragic deaths/ near misses from carbon monoxide poisoning in NH from people whose generators were too close to the house.
Generators can be a god send if you live in an area prone to outages but can be dangerous if not installed by a reputable professional. Good luck.