Building a Wooden Cage- help!

[DestinyLynette]

After some discussion with a wood shop instructer I train with, I found out that he would be willing to build Rosca's tank, given I pay for the materials. First of all, I was pretty overjoyed by this because my own handy skills are... well, pitiful. Second, after agreeing to give him the specifics, I realized that I had no idea outside the bare basics of what to tell him. I need to type him up an overview of everything I want done, but I'm pretty afraid of overlooking something. Please tell me what you think. Here's what I'm wanting done with her tank:

• 4' long, 2' tall, 2' wide
• Wooden sides and bottom, some sort of clear front (plexiglass?), hinged door on top with chicken wire (instructor's suggestion when I expressed my desire for a screen top
• Want to make a vivarium with this tank

I'm currently using a heat lamp for her heat source, although I have just started hearing about heat tape- I'm kind of curious about it; if I decide to use that, would I have to make any accomodations to the tank?
I was looking into using good grade plywood- I was reading some cage building guides and saw that B grade and better were acceptable. I feel like I'm missing something big in the planning of this- it can't be as simple as sheets of wood + wire + clear front.. I feel like holes need to be put somewhere or something.

Rosca is a 5' long ball python if that is helpful at all.
Any comments, ideas, suggestions, instructions, etc would be great; I saw some cage-building guides in this forum and went through them but couldn't much understand them.