Adding sub panel in my basement
AWG is the name of the wire size, e.g. you want to use 6 AWG wire.  

SOOW is a cable type, however it is cordage and not allowed for building wiring. 

You want NM-B or possibly UF-B.  



It needs to be protected from physical damage, i.e. getting beaned by people moving furniture or carrying in a ladder or whatever.  If you must mount it on the face of the beam,  your best bet is to install it in EMT conduit, which provides physical protection.  However, at that point, you are better off running the EMT all the way from panel to panel, and then, using THHN individual wires in the pipe.  A neat side effect of this is you can run an extra 10 amps, so 70A. 



If you lived in Wyoming and drove 85 mph every day, would you want 85 mph rated tires on your car?  Of course not, you don't want to be at safety redline all the time.   So do not get a "60A" panel.  Get more like a 125-200A panel that has plenty of spaces. Like huge numbers of spaces.  Like 30 spaces.

Get a Siemens main-lug panel. This will allow you to use this here transfer switch actually made by Siemens and is Tier 1 quality gear.  ($25 + two $10 breakers). 

"But I don't need 30 spaces" -- oh, you just watch!  


You will need 4 spaces for the above interlock
A kitchen requires about 8 circuits to be Code, so 8 
Dedicated line for 2nd freezer (+1) 
Sump pump (1)
Furnace MUST be on a dedicated circuit (1)
eventually you will want to put a lot more circuits so you have the option of having them on generator (10)


So wow, we're at 25 spaces just like that.