The electricity is working. Heat is on and hot water is available. The TV and internet are connected.
This was the experience of millions on Sunday as high winds and heavy rain lashed the state, with gusts continuing to accelerate Monday.
Power outages for the four major utilities ranged from 1 percent to 3 percent for the state's 3.5 million electricity users.
And for this, we can thank Hurricane Sandy, which five years ago left most of New Jersey dark for weeks.
Sandy was actually a successive 1-2-3 punch from Mother Nature that taxed the state's power companies.
First, was Hurricane Irene on Aug. 28, 2011, which knocked out power to 1.5 million people in New Jersey. It was a short-term loss for most, but a few thousand were out for nearly a week.
Then came the Halloween blizzard two months later. The freak storm of heavy wet snow, caught by the leaves still on the trees, turned suburban streets into broken-branch jungles. Powerlines came down with those tree limbs, and 500,000 people statewide lost electricity, some for as long as a week.
The next gut-punch, Sandy, set records - and prompted a stronger utility response. Between the sustained 80-mph winds that brought down branches and trees, and the storm-surge flooding that swamped substations, 2.4 million lost power and the outages dragged on into weeks.
The tree fall during Sandy resembled a logging forest, especially in the state's older leafy suburbs, which were developed in the 1910s, 20s and 30s. The trees planted along sidewalks and loomed over powerlines were old, and their root structures, like geriatric bones, were weakening.
Tom Ombrello, the Union County College biologist and state expert on trees, said the oaks and beech trees that made the suburbs attractive and homey were "reaching the end of their lifespans" and their roots were crowded by street pipes and pavement.
So, when Sandy came along ... timber!
After the storm, the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) studied the tree maintenance guidelines for utility companies and several new rules were imposed. They included new trimming specifications for higher voltage lines, two-foot trims of branches above and below power lines, and more severe trims between a substation and the first re-closure switch, which can help isolate outages. The board also asked the utilities to cut down hazardous trees - those dead or weakened -- that could crash down on lines.
Ron Morano, the spokesman for Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), said the company has trimmed trees along 17,000 miles of lines in the five years since Sandy, as part of $1.5 billion in upgrades.
Those upgrades include putting flood barriers, permanent walls and raising equipment in 20 low-lying substations, mostly in coastal Monmouth and Ocean counties, upgrading lines and installing automatic control devices that can stop outages from spreading through a damaged system.
But in heavy winds and lashing rains, the tree-trims pay obvious dividends.
"Everyone realized the serious damage that trees can have on infrastructure following Hurricane Sandy and the significant storms in the two years prior to Sandy," Morano said. "In maintaining proper clearance around its equipment, JCP&L helped reduce the number and frequency of tree-related power outages."
During this past weekend's storm, 79,000 of JCP&L 1.1 million customers lost power. But as evidence that the tree-trimming practices were working, 99.9 percent were restored within 24 hours. Repairs from tree-related outages - which entail chainsaws to free lines and bucket trucks to re-string them - always take more time, utility officials say.
Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G) also has made substantial investments since Sandy, spending $1.2 billion in the past five years to buoy the system against strong storms. The utility said it is "more aggressively patrolling and removing dead or diseased trees" already covering 4,000 miles this year.
Brian Hartel, the manager of vegetation management for PSE&G, said the company has trimmed and maintained trees along 18,100 miles of lines.
"Going after dangerous and hazard trees has dropped our 'preventable' outages from 9 percent in 2013 to 2.5 percent in 2015," he said.
Hartel explained a 'preventable' outage was one caused by trees that should have been on the company's radar as hazardous.
"If a storm blows down a healthy tree and one that's been maintained, we don't classify that as 'preventable,' " he said.
Gary Lovallo, the town forester for Old Bridge, Monroe and several other communities, said there is both "good and bad" in the extensive tree-trimming by the utilities.
"Line clearance has helped maintain reliable electrical service, and that's good," said Lovallo. "Maintained trees are less likely to fail.
"The downside is sometimes a tree can become unbalanced and an aesthetic nightmare," he said. "With long-term improper trimming, the entire weight of the canopy shifts to the property owner's side. If the tree comes down, it comes down on that side."
Trees on private property remain an issue for the utilities. So do individual municipal shade and tree commissions, which have say in some towns about what residents - and utilities can do with trees.
Hartel says PSE&G created a division after Sandy to send foresters and other experts into communities to "educate them on how we can keep the lines safe" to alleviate fears that companies want to clear-cut around the lines.
"It's about removing or cutting back the right tree in the right place," he said.