Wow, this thread is really long. I didn’t read all of it, so forgive me if I repeat anything.
I would say don’t do anything special to boost the humidity right off the bat, including a humidity hide. Let your snake have a couple shed cycles first. If the sheds are coming off basically in one piece, then the humidity is fine. When the humidity it too low, the shed comes off in tons of tiny, shredded pieces and there are lots of stuck shed on the snake.
In most situations, those half logs are total junk for the purposes of a hide. They are fine for enrichment and a nice rough material to shed against. For your hides you’re going to want something with totally enclosed sides and top, with a small opening for access. Hides should be appropriately sized. Snakes love to cram into them, virtually filling the entire volume of the hide. They feel most secure with their body pressed up against the inner sides and ceiling of the hide. So don’t use a gigantic hide with lots of space. You can use disposable hides too. Think a Kraft mac & cheese box with a hole cut in the end. If it get’s pooped in, just toss it out. I just scrolled back to see your enclosure pics. Very nice. Love the clutter. You might have enough clutter for that half log to qualify as a hide to your snake. But you might want to use a second one of that same purple hide, one on the warm end and one on the cool end of the enclosure. Sometimes a snake will exclusively prefer one hide over all others even if it doesn’t provide the desired temperature it needs at that moment. Using two identical hides, one on the cool end and one on the warm end, should eliminate it using just one hide because it’s the favorite.
Check that enclosure REALLY thoroughly for escape points. A corn that small in an enclosure that large might find a gap you didn’t account for. And check the gap between the two sliding glass doors. Snakes can squeeze through some pretty tight openings. And if you put fancy decorations in the enclosure, like a giant castle intended for aquarium decor, keep in mind that those kinds of things often have tiny, crammed innards that corns love to hide in. I’m not saying not to use them, just don’t freak out when you can’t find your corn anywhere without first checking those tiny nook-and-crannies.
Lighting the enclosure is more of a thing for us than them. They don’t need lights. As long as the room has a window there will be enough ambient light in the room to provide a day/night cycle.
With any heating element, you definitely need a thermostat. And an infrared laser thermometer is quite handy to check temps in different locations quickly.
I would not bother getting a temporary smaller enclosure. Use the big one you already bought. Just use lots of clutter to provide plenty of cover. With ball pythons they value security above everything else. If they don’t feel secure, they will be stressed and that will lead to appetite loss. I believe corns are not nearly as sensitive to security as BPs.
Try not to handle the little guy for the first week to ten days. Give him time to acclimate. Handling will add stress and she’s already going to be stressed enough with his new environment. She really doesn’t need to feed that first week. This is pretty important for BPs, but probably less so for corns. I know it’s going to be damn near impossible for a 9-year old not to want to hold the new corn for 7-10 days, so maybe give it at least three days without handling to acclimate.
Do NOT EVER use any kind of tape on the inside of the enclosure. They will find it and it will not be a fun day.
Corns are extremely tolerant and well adapted to a variety of living conditions, so yeah, try not to overthink too much. I know that’s tough with your first snake as you don’t want to screw it up.
The hammock will not be used in the traditional sense, but it is another climbing surface that will be appreciated.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat and each snake is an individual, so your milage may vary. Take all this advice and tips with a grain of salt. Figure out what works best for you and your particular snake.
As I’m sure you know by now, there are TONS of helpful, non-judgmental folks on this board more than willing to help and there are (almost) no stupid questions. So just fire away!