Apache2 not serving php scripts - php

Question

I have searched the web for days now, taking what I have found and applying it to my configuration and still cannot work with php on my local machine. I am at a total loss and frustrated to say the least!
Running on Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit and pretty sure that Ive went over all configuration files that otherwise need to be edited in order to get php configured, I'm at a stand still! The following are my Apache2 files.
apache2.conf
ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"
The accept serialization lock file MUST BE STORED ON A LOCAL DISK.
Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR} default
PidFile: The file in which the server should record its process
identification number when it starts.
This needs to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars
PidFile ${APACHE_PID_FILE}
Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out.
Timeout 300
KeepAlive On
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
KeepAliveTimeout 5
User ${APACHE_RUN_USER}
Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP}
HostnameLookups Off
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Require all denied
</Directory>
<Directory /usr/share>
AllowOverride None
Require all granted
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Require all granted
</Directory>
<Directory /srv/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Require all granted
</Directory>
<FilesMatch "^\.ht">
Require all denied
</FilesMatch>
And,
dir.conf
<IfModule mod_dir.c>
Directory Index index.php index.html index.cgi index.pl index.php index.xhtml index.htm
</IfModule>
I keep reading references to the httpd.conf file however this file does not exist. Am I suppose to manually create my own following an installation?
All I get is the following error when navigating to http://localhost/
**Error**
Not found: vhost: localhost
In the past I never bothered creating separate sites/vhosts. All I am interested in is getting php served up when navigating to my /var/www/html directory.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!#