New habitat owner (no snake...yet) with questions on temp

[OkamiFlautist]

Makes sense. I will amend the plan to install the thermostat sensor as shown. What do you use to keep the thermometer probe in place under the substrate?

My thermometers came with a suction cup physically attached (I use ZooMed Digital Thermometers). That way the suction cup cannot detach from the probe and fall into the vivarium, but it also helps secure the probe. I stick that to the wall and then weave the thermometer down and underneath the soil, so the actual thermometers are not physically attached. I check the probe placement daily or any time I check (I check temps three times a day) and the temps seem off. I rely more on my IR thermometer for true temperatures, and essentially use the digital ones as a back up.

Yep, my hope is that if I add a ceramic heat emitter it will knock down the humidity while increasing the ambient temps. I live in Washington State, our average humidity is somewhere around 60%, but I have a wood insert that drops the humidity down to 35 - 45% in the winter

A CHE sounds perfect idea for you then, both for your temps and your humidity. I'm in British Columbia and our average humidity is current around 72%

Ah ok, I'll give that a go. I've been able to get substrate surface up to 80 degrees with 1-inch cover. I also added two hides and "inside hide" temps are now 88 - 90. Cool side is still 72 and ambient is still around 72 - 73

Are the hides identical? If the hides are not identical, the snake may prefer one hide to the other, leading it to favor whatever side that hide is on more. That may mean it ends up on the cold or hot side more than it should.
So temperature wise the cool side is still too low. With the thermostat you linked, it sounds like it would be a good idea for you to have two of them (one for the cold side, one for the warm side), or to invest in a thermostat that has two temperature zones and two probes so you can individually set temps for both sides.

No, it was the bag of lose stuff. The cedar mulch is what had all the moisture, even the bag was getting condensation inside just from sitting in the room.

I highlighted this for safety- do you mean cypress? Any aromatic woods such as cedar and pine contain oils that are toxic for snakes.
ZooMed's Forest Floor bedding holds onto humidity really well. If you are having issues with high humidity, it may be a good idea to remove that from your substrate. I currently use coconut fibre mixed with Reptibark and sphagnum moss, and I find that it works perfectly.

Sure - I am not a very good photographer. This is what I've done so far, the habitat has been "operating" for about a day, decor so far was added this morning.

Looking good!