Welcome, and glad you got your wife on board!
Ball pythons are probably one of the easiest reptiles. You could use a tub, tank, or get a rack if you plan on getting more. I use tanks because I think they look the nicest, no other reason. I keep two hides, on on the hot side, one on the cool side. I keep my hot side at 90- 95 degrees and my cool side at 80- 85 degrees, and my ambient air temperatures stay between 80- 85 degrees. I always keep the humidity between 45- 55% and when in shed I've always bumped it up to 60- 70%.
For substrate you could use aspen, eco- earth expandable dirt, paper towels, or newspaper. I use eco- earth because it holds humidity very well, and is rarely ingested, and there are no large pieces to make them compacted like there are with aspen.
Just to help out some. Good luck with finding your new ball python, and congratulations again.