deck almost prepped....next steps questions

Hello,

(pictures attached)

1. northern IL - 35mi west of Chicago

2. partial shade (maybe 2 hrs of sun per day), south-facing

3. unknown wood and age of deck

4. some mold and mildew issues

5. unknown previous stain but chipping heavily

We do not know the history of our deck but it has clearly been neglected by previous owners. We have prepped our deck by pressure washing twice and using the Restore-a-Deck stain stripper. There was a lot of stain left, so we have been working on sanding down to the bare wood and are almost done. We are in the process of replacing 12-13 deck boards that are damaged.

Based on your forums, I believe our best bet would be to clean and brighten with the Restore-a-Deck brightener, then to use the Armstrong-Clark semi solid stain.

My questions are:

1. Based on how much of the stain we have removed with the sanding, is there any way we could get away with using the Armstrong-Clark semi trans or transparent stains (we prefer the most natural wood colors possible - we included a picture of the semi solid stains on an old board as an example of what the semi solid looks like....a little darker than we would like)

2. Can we stain immediately after replacing the deck boards or do we need to let them weather/dry out at all? Will we notice a color difference between the new boards and old boards? 

Thanks in advance for your advice! This website is a life saver!