Hi Austin
A couple thoughts - if there's any way you can make the enclosure bigger, I'd strongly suggest doing so. I started off with a cage that size, then put in the wheel, food & water dishes, & igloo for a sleeping area and quickly realized there was no room for hedgie to move!! I do use that size cage for when we travel, so, yes, it's possible, but it's *really* cramped. When the sites mention a 1' x 2' minimum... that really, really is the minimum.
I'd stay away from wood products to make the cage for a couple of reasons - while you can find a non-toxic sealant to help protect against things like spilled water and urine, it's not going to be 100%... you may end up needing to reconstruct portions of the wooden cage sooner than you'd anticipate. Also, wood has been cited as a source for harboring mites. It can also hold on to other "bug" - viruses/bacteria. And is harder to sanitize if hedgie runs into a real health issue. While you can pull the wood out, scrub it, and bake it to clean it during the course of treating for a viral or bacterial infection, it's going to be ever so much easier to wipe down something like coroplast, plastic, etc... Though I have known people to successful make a portion of their enclosures with wood -- just want to make sure you know some of the issues with it, so you can anticipate what steps you may need to take in the future.
That said, right, stay away from cedar and pine. From there, I'd be looking at finding a rather non-porous hardwood. Maybe think about a coroplast liner though to help with the messies??
As you're describing it, it sounds like the only ventilation in via the generic vents... If I'm picturing it right (like:
http://www.justhomedecor.com/estoreusa/home.php?cat=306) hedgie may or may not have enough ventilation. Remember hedgie's poo and pee are going to build up in there - it could become foul pretty quickly. These little guys make a lot of poop for a creature their size! Gads, I remember bringing my baby home some years ago, expecting something maybe a bit bigger than the pelleted poops that a guinea pig makes... then out comes this log... and another log!
If you were thinking along the lines of the larger vent covers with those with nice, big, openings/plenty of airflow and you're planning on putting them around the sides (ie, not just like the ones with thin slatted parallel openings placed on the top of the enclosure only) it *might* work out. You definitely do not want to assemble something that looks/acts like a fish tank... not enough air flow.