One point to remember:
If you connect a generator to your house, you need to disconned the house from the power grid. Otherwise you will be backfeeding power into the grid and you could BBQ the poor lineman guy trying to fix stuff.
I have my house wired for a generator. We ran a wire into the main bus. I can shut off the two main breakers and that separates the house from the grid. I then power up the generator and it feeds directly into the bus. To go the other way, I shut the genset off and unplug it. Then flip the main breakers back on.
The really slick way would be a 3-position switch with DEAD NOTHING in the middle, so you'd go grid to DN to Genset. But what I have works fine.
I realize this isn't something you do on a half hour's notice, but it's worth doing for future reference.
I hope your power's back on now