Please help!!!!!

[the baglady]

Today we are tearing the cedar siding off the outside of our house to do some repairs. We have found a snake skin about 7 feet long dangling up and around the metal fireplace box. It appears the snake crawled up, under and around the framing of this box and left its skin. In order to get where it is, the snake had to get behind the cedar siding, plywood, tar paper, and insulation in order to get to the fireplace box. OR it had to come into my house, crawl up into the fireplace area and get between the box and the framed fireplace area. From the outside, the house is approximately 40 feet from ground to chimney and about l8 feet from ground to the place on the fireplace box where the skin is found. The southwest side of our house gets over 100 degrees during the hottest days. The house sits on the side of a heavily wooded ridge known for copperheads. Did the snake come from the ground under the deck and crawl up the block foundation wall about 16 feet and then get into the wall somehow (NO signs of an entry anywhere, the deck is attached to the house with trim everywhere) or did it crawl thru our doors which I leave open without screens in the spring and early fall for air circulation? About 3 years ago another skin was found inside the basement hanging in the corner of the block foundation wall. About 7 years ago, I was walking in our woods and got bit by a copperhead. 3 surgeries, bone specialist, infectious disease specialist and 6 doctors later I am finally healed but scared to death of snakes. If a snake or snakes are inside our large home, how can I find them? We have 3 outside dogs that run loose at times when they are not in their pens, 2 inside dogs, and 3 cats. Our home sits on 8 acres of woods. I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight thinking others are inside our walls or inside our home. PLEASE HELP ME FIGURE THIS OUT AND WHAT I SHOULD DO. THANKS SO MUCH.