"... but not yet hard wired into the circuit panel which, as I have described above, ain't all that easy..."

Easy and cheap if ya know how to do it properly. It's just an emergency panel fed from the main entrance panel with a disconnect throw that provides a separation from the main entrance panel. After that, ya just gotta know the sequence as to how to bring the generator feeds online so that ya don't mess up the generator overcurrent protection. If ya do it right, yer ass ain't gotta be out in the blowin snow more than twice when ya fire it up. 'Cept fer refuelin the genie, 'course.