Currently I do a fresh install of Ubuntu every time I do new work (every 6months). Normally I spend about 6 hours getting my machine configured up (installing softwarem configuring my terminal, etc)
Maybe you have an involved set up and already do these things, but surely you could just write a bash script that installs all the software you need and store it with your dotfiles.
After a new Ubuntu install you can just pull down your dotfiles and run your install script. Aside from some things like ssh keys, gnome tweaks, etc. - this approach would likely get you 90% of the way to set up and would take ~15 mins.
Arriving at this set up would take a little bit of time, and require periodic maintenance, but given a weekend you could have it set up and tested.
Will Aviary be able to solve this?