You can do factory heads if all you want is, as you state; "...a solid reliable street motor..." You'll get more from the motor even in relatively stock form with good aftermarket heads. If your iron heads need a lot of work...valve job, guides, springs, surfacing and all that, you start getting a machine shop bill that starts encroaching on new alloy head prices. If you want to tart up the iron heads, porting and all that, then you are deep into alloy territory. It all comes down to what your expectations are.
Just so you know, if you want to use those iron heads, they have an 8 bolt exhaust flange. The C7 head also uses an exhaust port that is 1/4" lower than the earlier port and the CJ port. If you do nothing, you might be able to run some headers, but it's a bit of a crap shoot in how good they seal. Be very careful and understand everything if you are going the headers route. The factory drilled the exhaust flange for a 14 bolt pattern for the unibody cars and used special exhaust manifolds to fit the chassis. If you're thinking of using any manifolds but the factory unibody or CJ, then forget it. They won't fit. If you do want to use unibody or CJ manifolds, you'll need to have your head drilled to accept those. The bosses are on the head, but are not drilled.