Danny, I can relate to your point in life, I too after 30 years was sick of finding, cutting splitting, stacking and then moving from wood shed to house, firewood so I just moved to Queensland.
Good luck with the new house build.
Out of interest when you say you are putting in a ducted heat pump what do you mean?
In a previous life ( plumbing business) I use to install many variations of either hydronic heating, both panel radiators and under slab heating and also ducted gas furnace heating. Never done a ducted heat pump.
haha yeh moving to queensland is one solution to the heating issue
Im not sure how to explain a ducted heat pump but its just a reverse cycle system that they put in the roof (I dont know why its better in the roof?? Not all of them are.) and run ducting to each room.
You control the temperature in the rooms by opening or closing the vents. Very basic but it works. You also have a thermostat in the main living area for automated control of the temperature and that of course effects all the other rooms.
95% of people just leave all the vents open and allow the thermostat to control the temp in the whole house.
But just to touch on what you said about the firewood, the saying that it heats you 3 times is very true! Cutting splitting and stacking is one thing, and can usually be done to cover a winter in a big day or two. Its the transferring it inside so the wife has easy access that annoys me over winter. And its messy. You cant beat the heat though.