Tray...I agree with my colleage, times are tight as far as appraisals go these days. Although the age of the home is a huge contributing factor, the addition of a two car garage and additional square footage should be showing up in the equation-especially if the other homes in the area have less sq. footage and no garage. I too have seen both sides of this difficult situation recently and I will keep my fingers crossed for you and wish you all the best---

unfortunately we are all running into this issue! The rules have changed recently and you can not have direct contact with the appraiser to explain what you have upgraded over the other homes. the appraiser has seen your home but probably not toured the other homes he is using as comparables. You can't fault the appraisers in this situation because they are being asked to do double the work for each appraisal because the banks are now requiring much more info on market conditions etc...the appraiser tours your home and compares it with other similar homes( basically look at it like your vanilla box may be considered the same as your neighbors vanilla box, even though you have done much more work, etc)
I have been on both sides of appraisal issues with both buyer and seller clients recently and it can be a difficult situation. if you are trying to sell your home and you expect a certain reasonable price for it, and i stress reasonable price, you could ask for an appraisal review or a second apprasial to be performed. either way this will take some time to get done......if you are looking to refi, ask to have a second appraisal done or go to a different lender that will work with you. smaller local banks may be easier to work with in this situation.
good luck.

Dennis Strange
RE/MAx Premier