Hi, Sarah. I have a couple of points you might consider:
1. In the case of blooming, the advice most often given by specialists about inducing blooming in phals is *increase the light by about 50%*. Gradually, of course.
IMO, the most common mistake people make when they start with orchids indoors is to take the advice to give "bright shade" too literally. The authors of this advice are probably talking about greenhouse conditions, where yes: phals will be shaded from direct overhead sun by some kind of shadecloth that screens out some % of the sun's rays. They are still getting some % the available sun, tho. AND they are getting the slanting rays of the sun from the east from sunup, or in the west til sundown.
Point is, they are getting a lot more light in "bright shade" in a greenhouse than they are getting on a table 5 feet from a window in a "bright" room in someone's house. Indoors, they are shaded from direct overhead sun by your roof. They *only* get the sun that slants indoors. That can be too hot, too, but there are remedies for that.
I wasted my first year of growing orchids followiing this "bright shade" stuff, and learned by trial and error that phals can profit from a lot more light than you think. (NOT direct hot overhead sun, of course).
You can tell if they are getting too much light by simply feeling the leaves-- if the leaves start to feel noticeably warm, that is too much light. As long as the leaves feel cool, you can increase the light.
2. About watering. You say you give them "a bit" of water. Phals need a *lot* of water poured thru at one time when watering. Then let the medium dry out til almost, but not quite, dry before watering again. "Overwatering" refers to watering *too often*, not to watering too much at one time.
The reason for pouring a lot of water thru is to flush out any salts that have accumulated in the medium. Phal roots are specialized to taking in small amount of nutrients, so they are very sensitive to any accumulated salts, and will be damaged if the salts accumulate.
The best advice I can give you is to do some reading about phal culture. There are some excellent culture notes at a couple of phal specialist's websites. A few minutes reading those will repay you handsomely in better growth and blooms on your phals. Also in confidence in what you are doing.
[Ed. by kmarch: Go to the orchid culture section of this forum or to AOS | Home to get information on the cultural needs (light, water, temperatures, etc.) of phals.]
Good luck!