I currently rent and so I can't easily modify my place ;( for some stuff, I do run wifi but I hate it and cabling is SO much better, its not even funny. not even close. some things are really latency sensitive - if I start playback of an HD file over my htpc, on wireless it can take a minute before the mkv starts. on wired, even 10/100 wired, it starts immediately.
wifi is not secure, generally (some commercial ones are a bit better but home versions are all a joke). and wifi will always be a target for hackers.
I love zigbees but don't believe for a second they are secure. if you layer stuff on top of it, you can make them more secure, though.
but given a choice, wired is my choice, too. if I could, I would do the same - have gig-e wired (2 pairs at least) be in every room of the house and have them tie to a common wiring closet of some kind. (my current cheap/good managed switch is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006B7R3YC/ and you can bury that in an attic or some remote place and fully remotely manage it via web, cli, snmp. its a nice little cisco-like cheap l2 switch. and if you do install that remotely, you DO want to run a 2nd management-network wire to it; I prefer serial which is also a cisco standard. if you are pulling wire, pull lots of ethernet drops but also some serial drops as well).