Thanks for all the advice!

To answer your questions:
The cage is sealed (It's a Boaphile enclosure)
There is a digital thermometer/hygrometer on the hot side but you can't see it because of the angle of the photo. It is about 3 inches off the floor.
The cage has a good UTH as well as the CHE for extra ambient heat - both are on a good digital thermostat (Herpstat). The hot side thermometer probe is taped to the floor under the substrate, since that gave me good results measuring with the added CHE heat.
The incandescent bulb shown is a CHE and there is a fluorescent light on a timer.

I will add more stuff and some smaller hides based on what I am hearing. Thank you! I don't have a BP picked out yet so I am not sure of the size. I will probably pick up some appropriate sized hides at NERD when I go there to get my new pet

I am planning to use paper towels for a while until I have a good sense of my snake's bowel habits. I hope to switch to aspen bedding eventually.