Siding color match philosophies?

Here's another thread on Eichler home colors. When I bought my house, it had been painted over with latex. So no original color is exposed on the outside.

I've been struggling with color selection for the past few years. I was very lucky though to have two things in my favor, the original siding that's in the living and one bedroom that extends into the atrium is still unpainted. The original stain remains. But I was stupid when I bought the house and used a semi transparent stain to slightly warm it up without regard to the original color. However, I recently realized I have a cover in the closet that protects the radiant head manifolds made of siding and pine. That is the original color still. What appears to be a golden brown color, wth some green in it. And I have a door to the bedroom with the siding on it and stain on it still untouched.

Here's the dilenma and question on color. The original stain is semi transparent, so all the grain of the wood shows through and adds color. The stain on the door is faded a bit. But the closet cover is pretty good, so I am matching that color.

My match is about 95% there. But do you try to match to the stain color or the color of the house based on how the color of the wood and it's grain affects the stain. In my case, I am trying to get close to the stain, based on the piece of pine in the closet cover. It has much less grain impact on the color. But I can never get 100% there as the wood changes color over all this time, and altering the color that shows through the stain. So my philosophy so far has been to create a color match that averages out the colors of the stain and wood grain showing through.

I'll paint the house the color match and get a semi transparent stain to match so I can put the color right in the living room and bedroom.

What do you guys think? I wish there was a list somewhere that shows what Cabot stains where used! I also wonder if my 1968 Foster city Eichler color is any different to the older Eichlers in Palo Alto or other older Eichler neighborhoods.

Thanks! Nelson